ALL STAGES OF GRIEF MATTER

SUNSET AT CLEAR CREEK AMANA HIGH SCHOOL.; PHOTO BY CHAR EDMUNDS

Denial is what people say is the first stage of grief in almost every situation. Yes denial comes first, but it could also come with other stages like depression or anger. Denial is the stage when you are not accepting anything that's going on in the moment. The denial part can go on and off. Sometimes you'll accept it, other times you won't. It depends on how you're doing that day, week or month. Anger is set as the “second stage” in many experiences. Anger can be from the start, up until you accept it. Even then, you could still be angry with what happened at the start of your grieving process. Many people will be angry for a very long time, some won't, it depends on you as a person. Nobody's grieving Process will be the same. Bargaining is the “third stage”. Some people will bargain, and others won’t bargain at all or very little. Basically you’ll bargain with what has happened or what the truth really is. Depression is the “fourth stage”. People can get it extremely bad or not bad at all, but at the end of the day most people that go through something traumatic will sit and think about it over and over again without the awareness of what it truly is and what they need to do to heal what is going on in their mind. Acceptance is the “last stage” of the grieving process. Acceptance is the final step of the process but it never really ends. As a person who went through a loss and has experienced the grieving process, it is never the same and no one's experience will be the same. What brought me to start my grieving process was my fathers passing. It's only been 3 months since he passed, so I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with it and accept the truth. Grief looks different on everybody, it's not going to be the same for anyone. With my experience it didn’t take me as long to somewhat accept what had happened only 3 months ago.