The Five Stages of Grief

As I stated earlier, there is no one size fits all way of grieving. However, psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced the concept known today as the Five Stages of Grief in 1969. The five stages listed by Kübler-Ross were:

• Denial: In this instance, one may be unable to accept their current situation. They may experience disbelief, confusion, and outright reject this situation as their current reality.
• Anger: in this stage of grief, one may turn to finding someone or something to blame for the pain of their loss. 
• Bargaining: This stage of grief may find one begging for some greater power to change their current situation. 
• Depression: As one begins to get closer to acceptance, they will go through a period of great sadness and loss of motivation.  
• Acceptance: As the final stage of the grieving process is reached, one may find themselves able to believe in their current reality and begin the process of making peace with the pain that reality may bring.

These five stages were developed in Kübler-Ross‘ findings as she studied the grieving process of the terminally ill.

However, these stages of grief are used to describe the grieving process of many different instances today, including illness, loss, and significant changes in one’s life. 

While these five stages are commonly experienced by those dealing with grief, they are not all experienced similarly. Some people may not encounter every step, while others may encounter multiple stages at once.

There may even be some people who experience all five stages of grief, only to find their grieving process triggered all over again after finding acceptance. As with many other things, grief is experienced differently by us all.