| Stages of Grief - is Grief a process? |
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ARTICLE SUMMARY Swallowing hard, Bob told the doctor “No, not me, it cannot be true”. Having just been told he was facing a life limiting illness, he denied that the diagnosis was accurate. Grief gripped his heart like fear, his stomach fluttering. Bob began to shop around for a doctor to give him the news he was looking for – but to no avail. Grief as a process:
Your loved one cannot face their own death all the time, they must escape from the grief, Sometimes they must put it away for a time in order to live. At this point your loved one needs to seek meaning in their life – what matters most to him or her? Help discover what matters to your loved one today, and you can help ease their grief. Stages of Grief -is Grief a process? FULL ARTICLE Swallowing hard, Bob told the doctor “No, not me, it cannot be true”. Having just been told he was facing a life limiting illness, he denied that the diagnosis was accurate. Grief gripped his heart like fear, his stomach fluttering. Bob began to shop around for a doctor to give him the news he was looking for. Grief is a process that does not move in an orderly fashion. Elizabeth Kubler Ross identified five stages of Grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Denial is used by almost all those facing end of life issues. The dying may move from one stage to another and then back when something triggers a new response, a memory of something from the past. Denial as a stage of grief is a normal natural response to a devastating event. It is ok for your loved one to grieve, to mourn their own loss. Help your loved one suffering from grief to seek spiritual companions, or find a support group. It is usually easier to mourn for another’s loss than to mourn our own loss – it is less self indulgent. Sometimes the best way to forget about our own pain is to look to the pain of others. Your loved one cannot face their own death all the time, they must escape from the grief, Sometimes they must put it away for a time in order to live. At this point your loved one needs to seek meaning in their life – what matters most to him or her? By seeking and ultimately finding meaning in your loved one’s life and as they move along stages of grief, their pain may be reduced, and they may regain some focus in their life. Help discover what matters to your loved one, and you can help ease their grief. |