Grief is an intense sadness, a deep emotion that happens when a loved one or friend dies. Grief can also be experienced over a loss, not necessarily death, like the loss of opportunity, the loss of breasts after a mastectomy, or the loss of youth as a person ages. While grief is difficult, moving through the different stages eventually leads to happiness once again.
Denial
According to the website CancerSurvivors.org, the first stage of grief is denial. This stage occurs when the person suffering from grief thinks that the sad event isn't really happening or is not reality. Denial allows her to feel normal for a brief period of time while she thinks that nothing bad actually happened. Yet in reality, it is unhealthy to stay in the stage of denial for too long.
Anger
While not every person who experiences grief goes through all of the different stages, anger is a common and important stage of grief. According to Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, when people realize that the event really did happen, they commonly get angry at the world, at God or at themselves for letting the person die or letting the traumatic event take place.
Bargaining
The third stage of grief, according to CancerSurvivors.org, is bargaining. People who lose a loved one don't always go through this stage, but it's typical for people who have lost a job or gone through another traumatic event to try to bargain with God or themselves. She may try to bargain by saying that she will be a better person or make changes if only she gets back what she lost.
Depression
Depression is the toughest, fullest, deepest part of grieving. It is the stage where the person feels the saddest and may think almost constantly about what happened. Memorial Hospital states that depression can also cause a feeling of emotional numbness and lack of energy.
Acceptance
Acceptance is the final stage of grief, and it is one that every person must go through in order to heal. Memorial Hospital of Pennsylvania explains this stage as the point when sadness and anger decrease, and the person begins to accept the new reality so that she can slowly move on. There can still be periods of sadness and remembrance during the acceptance stage, but at this point, she can actually carry on and do things with her life that she may not have been able to do before.
