If you’ve heard anything about grief at all, you may have heard about ‘the five stages of grief.’ But when you speak with professionals at funeral homes in Key Biscayne, FL, you may learn that there’s a lot more to grief than those five stages. In fact, not everyone goes through every stage and there isn’t a hard and fast rule as to how long you might be in one particular stage or another. They might even come to you out of order. But as you work through your grief, you might want to recognize what the different stages are so you can, perhaps, identify your own emotions and relate them back to your grief. Here are some of the stages of grief.
Denial
This is generally the first, or one of the first, stages of grief. If you don’t want to acknowledge that your loved one is gone or that your life how now changed in a huge way, you might be denying what has happened. It might be soothing to you, for a time, but you will have to accept what has happened and putting that off won’t help anything. You could be in denial for just a short amount of time, but some people cling to it and drag it out, so they don’t have to move into other grief stages, which are even more painful.
Anger
Anger can take place at any time in the grieving process and it can come and go. Some people never feel it at all. But if you do get angry, you might be mad at yourself for the way you acted or for something you said. You might be made at your loved one for passing on. Or you might be made at the world in general. It’s understandable to be angry at your situation, but make sure you don’t let your anger take over your rational behavior or you might regret it later.
Bargaining
A lot of people will ask “what if?” questions after a loved one passed away. What if you had noticed certain signs? Would they still have died? What if you had said this or that? Would they have more peace after passing? This is a dangerous game to play as you cannot go back and change things. It’s not helpful to bargain and it will only hurt you. But it’s something those in grief often find themselves doing.
Depression
It makes sense to be sad over the loss of a loved one, but there are natural forms of sadness and then there’s depression, which sees you focusing on despair. It can be overwhelming and prevent you from moving on and once you sink into this phase, it can be hard to get out of it.
Acceptance
You are never going to be happy about what’s happened, but once you accept that you can’t change it and you are ready to move on into a new normal, this phase is the best you can hope for.
Professionals at funeral homes in Key Biscayne, FL, like those at Ferdinand Funeral Homes & Crematory, can help you with final services and grief resources no matter what stage you are in.
