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Elizabeth Kudler-Ross Five Stages Of Grief

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The five stages of grief first appeared in 1960. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book entitles “Death and Dying” which seemed to impact our nation. The five stages are heavily outlines within the book and continue to explain human behaviors when a traumatic event occurs. Within her book, she focuses on people that have recently been diagnosed with terminal illness, and she examines how they react when forced to look death in the eye. The five stages within the book include Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. For those who had recently been diagnosed with terminal illness, denial always seemed to erupt in thought such as “This can’t be, I feel so healthy.” or “This just can’t be real.” It is a natural defense mechanism that …show more content…

This is where we see phrases like, “I can’t believe she is really gone.” The denial stage often occurs because the human brain is simply too overwhelmed to accept things as they are. Anger follows shortly after denial. A person is likely to develop complex resentment against others and themselves. This is the stage where we see people say, “This is your fault.” or even “I did nothing to deserve this.” depending on the circumstances. Bargaining is usually where a higher power comes into play. Patients that are faced with death usually say things like “I will do anything if you let me live.” They are usually trying to gain longer life by telling God or a higher power they will do absolutely anything. After the first three stages, a person will usually go into a depression. We know depression as a deepening sadness in which some people can’t seem to escape. A dying patient will usually say things like “I give up.” during this stage. When a patient has entered the depression stage the only thing one can do is give them time to mourn. The fifth and final stage is acceptance. Acceptance is when a person finally comes to terms with what is happening to

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