Question

why is acceptance of death not to be confused with a happy stage? What are the 5 stages that kubler-ross identifies?

Answer 1

As a reminder of the mortality of human beings, it is important to talk about death. Death is the most significant part of people’s lives, it is the ultimate truth. People usually won't talk or discuss death as it can make them feel uncomfortable, and most of them don't want to accept death as a part of life, as they have the fear of loss, or refusing to face the truth or denial. Acceptance of death must be confused with a happy stage as it is simply a stage where the person just learns to accept the reality as it is and live with it, this doesn’t indicate they are happy about moving on, but there are more happy days than the sad ones as the time progresses, and the person still remembers the pain of losing the person.

According to Elizabeth Kubler Ross’s stages, all of these happen when a person loses a loved one. People need to understand that to make grieving a relatively comfortable, people need to accept the idea of death. Because when death occurs, people go into shock and feel completely isolated, angry, guilty, etc. so it is essential to understand that death is completely natural process, and also explain it to others experiencing too even though it can become awkward and embarrassing talking about it openly, so that people don’t completely go into denial when it happens and even before as it can become overwhelming, and the person can go into a state of sudden shock. It should be talked about even with the people who might be experiencing death soon so that all their wishes can be fulfilled.

These 5 stages are most commonly experienced by the people, however, it is possible that some people might not experience any of it or some only experience two.

1. Denial- it is a stage where an individual goes into a state of numbness when it gets extremely overwhelming for a person to even believe the devastating news, people starts to deny it completely, and go into a state of shock, they start to deny the news by assuming something else might have happened or they were given false information.

2. Anger- people in this stage completely start to blame the situation and talk about the hurt only they are experiencing in the whole world, they will get frustrated about it, it is, therefore, important to let the anger out and not suppress it.

3. Bargaining- this is a stage that gives a person a false hope, people start to bargain and the desperation leads to the negotiation of many kinds in the hope to change the situation back to normal.

4. Depression- the feeling of hopelessness leads to low energy and motivation in people, they, therefore, don’t feel like interacting with anyone as they are already so overwhelmed, they will stay in bed and most likely mourn.

5. Acceptance- the emotions start to normalize again, there is a sense of acceptance of the new reality without the presence of the person, and the individual start to grows slowly with the acceptance, there will be some low and bad days but, the individual will get back to adjusted reality again.