5 Stages of Death and Dying

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5 Stages of Death In denial, a person routinely denies the existence of grief or the existence of a terminal illness. This may be followed by anger in which a person becomes furious at the fact that such a devastating thing could occur to him or her. Bargaining is a stage in which people hope by behavior to either change a grief situation or evade oncoming death. Grief and depression usually result when the person realizes bargaining has failed. Ultimately, the person comes to accept the death will occur or that a loss has occurred and may be able to help others gain this acceptance too. Denial occurs when you first hear news of the loss that initially causes your grief. Through denial you express a disbelief that it could happen. The U.S. National Library of Medicine says that denial can also occur with numbness to the event. The length of this stage is different for each individual. For some, it may only last a few moments. For others, it can last days or weeks, until you are ready to move onto the next stage. Anger begins when you start thinking about the event, if it could have been prevented and how it affected you. If you've lost someone, you might be angry with the person involved in the death, whether it's a careless driver or a competent doctor. You might even become angry with yourself for not finding a way to prevent it. You might experience a feeling of being singled out and question why the loss happened to you. You might begin bargaining as a gateway to depression and desperation. The pain is felt so acutely that you make a deal with a higher power or yourself to be a better person, try harder, or complete some other task in order for the loss or the pain of loss to dissolve. If the death has not yet occurred but is inevitable, you may find yourself looking for ways to "fix" the problem in exchange for health by seeing other doctors, getting another

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