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Posts Tagged ‘
death ’
Introduction
When life is suddenly interrupted by a tragic or traumatic event, it can seem that the world has come to a screeching halt. Murders, assaults, and tragic accidents that occur without warning are particularly disturbing and difficult to manage emotionally. How individuals recover from such situations often depends on the prior psychological functioning of the individual, the exact nature of the trauma, and the individual’s ability to regain some sense of safety and control over his or her world. There are, however, striking similarities in the ways in which we humans attempt to regain our composure and resume our lives after such an event.
While grief or sympathy is an expected reaction, another feeling is also tapped following a tragedy: a frightening sense of helplessness. Disasters, accidents, and traumatic events can invoke significant feelings of vulnerability and a loss of control in all of us. While each day brings countless threats and potential dangers to every human being, we have evolved to psychologically “insulate” ourselves from these fears and to proceed through our lives as if we, and everyone around us, have been somehow guaranteed another day. We dismiss the chance of death or loss, and we find comfort in predictability. We create a bubble around ourselves, enabling us to happily overlook our own mortality and the potential for life to suddenly and irreversibly change course. When that bubble is suddenly burst, it can leave us feeling helpless and vulnerable. Life suddenly becomes scary and unpredictable, and those feelings can be paralyzing.
To regain some feeling of control and to again make sense of life after a seemingly senseless occurrence, we may begin to search for both meaning and often blame. We may replay the specifics of the tragedy and the events leading up to it over and over to try and restore a sense of predictability. We may search all of the available information to find something, anything, that could have been done to prevent it: “If only I had taken another road…If only the airports had screened more carefully…If only the levees had been built better…”
If we decide that someone could have intervened and prevented the tragedy, or that some sequence of events could have been recognized as a prelude to the disaster, then we may feel that it is within our capability to prevent such a disturbance to our predictable world from ever happening again. If we begin to believe that it actually wasn’t inevitable or unforeseeable, then no matter whom or what is to blame, we believe we can insure that the same mistakes are never repeated. The awful randomness of tragedy is thereby erased, and our impenetrable bubble is once again restored. Life returns to its normal, predictable patterns, and the demons return to the shadows.
While these maneuvers to restore a sense of mastery over our world are natural and usually benign coping strategies, they can also be the catalyst for a disaster of another kind. If, in our attempt to make sense out of the senseless, we misplace blame on either ourselves or on another, then we create culpability or responsibility where there is none. This results in essentially restoring our own sanity by sacrificing our humanity.
While we cannot be expected to completely avoid these tragic tendencies, we can be expected to constantly question our own motives and reactions. Anger, grief, sadness, confusion are all valid and understandable emotions in response to life’s sudden attempt to exert its own will. But they are emotions that we, as individuals, must process and resolve for ourselves. It is important to recognize that a sense of helplessness may be complicating recovery. We must be able to look to life-affirming activities to help restore a sense of peace and balance.
If we are able to keep in mind that our own responses to tragedy and loss are often based in fear and a false sense of omnipotence, then we may be able to resist the desire to throw our neighbor into the volcano to deter the next eruption. Then, once we begin to accept that in many ways our lives are unpredictable and our days fleeting, we can begin to live more fully and cherish each moment that we are given.
In the aftermath of a tragedy, social workers are often “first responders” who provide services both on-site and in the subsequent days and months. Whether the situation involves only a handful of individuals such as in a shooting or an entire region such as with Hurricane Katrina, social workers are involved in the task of getting people’s lives back to normal as quickly as possible.
- Social workers help connect victims and their families with critical services and provide mental health interventions for emergency personnel.
- Social workers provide ongoing psychological services for those directly impacted by a tragedy and help individuals move through their grief and fear related to the trauma.
- Social workers normalize feelings which create a greater sense of control.
- In situations where children are displaced, state social workers often assist them in finding temporary or long-term placement.
- When the tragedy involves the loss of a home or income, social workers help locate things like food, clothing, and shelter for the affected individuals. Social workers also help with job placement and the application for state or federal funds for which the individual might qualify.
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Tags: blaming, death, event, grief, help, Lesa Warren, loss, meaning, social workers, tragedy, tragic
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Introduction
Grief. It’s one of the most basic and universal of human emotions. If you are alive, you either have experienced or will experience grief. Grief can occur when someone experiences a loss…any loss. People generally expect grief to follow a death, but it can also occur after a life-altering illness, after the end of a relationship, losing a pet, or because of giving-up of a dream. But even though grief is a common and universal emotion, it can take on very different forms from one individual to the next.
There is no “appropriate” bereavement period for someone who has experienced a loss. Grief is a very individual experience and can vary in length and intensity from person to person, and even from one loss to another. Grief is the natural and healthy task of processing a loss and it can include significant mental, physical, social, and/or emotional reactions. With support from friends and family, however, most individuals are able to grieve their losses and successfully leave the mourning period in their own time. These individuals are generally able to move into the next stage of life with an emotional and spiritual renewal. Time is also a natural healer of intense pain and emotions which are a part of grief.
How does someone know if their grieving becomes unhealthy? Grief can sometimes become what is called complicated grief: grief, which is identified by a significantly extended period of symptoms, an inability to function in daily activities, and/or the presence of very intense symptoms such as violent or prolonged anger or suicidal thoughts and feelings.
Complicated grief can appear as a major depression or even post-traumatic stress disorder, both of which can seriously interfere with functioning. Individuals who are experiencing complicated grief seem unable to move forward and find resolution. At that point, grief stops being a healthy and necessary vehicle for growth and becomes a dark and menacing adversary.
If someone is suffering from complicated grief, the best approach is to seek psychological help, perhaps with medication support. While complicated grief like other mental health needs disorders can’t simply be wished away, individuals can usually be assisted through the grief process by a professional and return to a more stable level of functioning.
There are many highly trained social workers available to help those whose suffering is unnaturally prolonged or considered complicated. Many individuals experiencing grief receive support from loved ones, friends, clergy, support groups, online information. They may also receive support from printed materials and sometimes short-term counseling. Temporary medication assistance may help get some individuals through difficult times like the funeral or related events which trigger memories and emotions about their loss.
Many people who experience grief are resilient but they may need formal or informal support of some kind.
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Introduction
You might have thought you were in the wrong place if you stepped inside Sol Levinson & Bros. Funeral Home on Wednesday night, May 10. The chapel filled with bouts of laughter from the approximately 400 guests inside.
Projected on a screen were dozens of cartoons — all about grief. The cartoons punctuated two PowerPoint presentations given by Dr. Kenneth J. Doka and Dr. Ellen S. Zinner at the eighth annual Irvin B. Levinson Memorial Lecture Series on Death, Dying and Bereavement, sponsored by the funeral home and Jewish Family Services, an agency of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.
Click here to read the entire story.
Tags: cartoons, death, Dr. Ellen S. Zinner, Dr. Kenneth J. Doka, dying, grief, how to, Irvin B. Levinson Memorial Lecture Series, jewish times, Laura Berg, loss, mourn, Sol Levinson & Bros
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Introduction
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Here are some of the young people who attended Camp Jonathan this year as they squeeze into a limousine to pose for a photo. |
Jonathan was a six-year old boy who died in 1988. Social worker Mary Lee Carroll, LCSW, served as his hospice volunteer. Her work with him and his spirit inspired Ms. Carroll to develop a pediatric bereavement program for a local hospice in Connecticut. In 1994, the organization received a grant from the Junior League of Waterbury, Connecticut, to sponsor Camp Jonathan. In 1999, Camp Jonathan was incorporated and now stands alone, and serves the needs of the breaved in the Watertown area of Connecticut. Every summer, Camp Jonathan sponsors a week-long summer day camp for bereaved children who have suffered the death of a significant person in their lives. The comments below on the nature of grief were made by children who attended a one-week support program in July 2005.
Grief is . . .
Hard and rough.
Sadness.
Mad and madness.
Unique.
Empty.
Lonely.
No fun – yukky.
Confused.
Hurtful.
Difficult.
Bad.
Unable to focus.
Like your heart is in a million pieces.
Difficult.
Very sad and depressing.
No fun.
Time consuming.
Rough around the edges.
Nerve wracking.
Like wearing clothes that are too small.
Draining.
Like you’re in a different dimension.
Bitter.
Cruel, mean, nasty.
A bad thing. |
Something that makes you stronger.
Something you’ll never forget.
A black hole.
Something everyone has.
Very sad and scary.
Losing something that you cared for.
Like trying to run when your shoes are too big.
Facing your fears.
A weight that starts off heavy and keeps getting lighter and lighter.
Like a forest fire.
First it wipes out everything. But then everything starts to grow back smooth and steadily, with a few speed bumps.
BUT: Some lives are just over.
You may never get to the light again, but it depends how well you see in the dark.
Wearing sneakers that are too tight all day long.
When it is very hot and you are uncomfortable.
Wearing shorts and it’s really cold outside.
Darkness, when you don’t have a night light and you’re afraid of the dark.
Dismal.
The pits.
Tired and frustrating.
Depressing. |
In addition to helping children through the one-week summer experience, group support programs are offered at Camp Jonathan throughout the year for children with their parents and for children alone. The organization also sponsors an overnight retreat for bereaved women in November of each year.
Led by trained pediatric grief counselors, therapists, and assisted by trained volunteers, Camp Jonathan offers support for bereaved children and adults through group and individual counseling. The counselors use creative therapies to access feelings, such as movement, art, poetry, and psychodrama to help the bereaved successfully navigate the grieving process.
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Camp Jonathan kids. |
More kids. |
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Kids, the pet therapy dog, and his handler. |
Even more kids. |
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Tags: bereaved, camp jonathan, children, death, grief, kids, loss, Mary Lee Carroll, social worker
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The Myth
- We only grieve death.
- People should leave grief at home.
- We grieve in slow predictable pattern.
- Grieving means letting go of the person who died.
- Grief finally ends.
The Reality
- We grieve all losses.
- We cannot control where we grieve or what will trigger our grief.
- Grief is an uneven process with no timeline.
- Grieving means going on with our life; while mainting memories, connections, and feelings of grief and loss.
- Over time, most people learn to live with loss.
Normal Reactions to Loss
Grief is a highly individualized experience that varies depending on who we are, whom we have lost, and how the loss affects our daily life. Grief is not only an emotional response to death or other loss. Typically, we also experience physical, psychological, spiritual, and behavioral reactions. Some of the immediate reactions may include, but are not limited to:
- Emotional: Feelings of shock and relief
- Physical: Shortness of breath, numbness, listlessness, feeling empty, chest pain, loss of energy, confusion
- Cognitive and Behavioral: Denial, disorientation
After the immediate shock, some later reactions may include:
- Emotional: Anger, fear, guilt, panic, loneliness, depression
- Physical: Lack of energy, chest pains, fatigue, tension
- Behavioral: sleeplessness and withdrawal or sleeping too much, overeating, substance use such as sleep aids, drugs, alcohol
Reactions to Sudden or Traumatic Loss
When a death is sudden, unexpected, or violent, and may have been caused by an accident, suicide, or homicide, the grieving process becomes more complicated. The family struggles with trying to make sense of the death and often searches for answers. The grieving process may take longer as family members experience fear and anxiety, guilt over what was done or not done, and anger due to feeling helpless and powerless.
Individuals may feel worse pain months or a year following the loss as the numbness that helped to protect them immediately following the death is gone and the loss is fully realized.
Anticipatory Grief
Grief can begin long before the death of a loved one when life-threatening symptoms first appear, particularly in cases involving cancer, AIDS, or other long-term illness. Anticipatory grief does not replace the grief that loved ones experience after the death. Grief reactions may include feelings of sadness, depression, and anxiety as family members consider questions such as, “What will I do?” and “How will I live?”, or “How can I go on?”
Conflicting studies research the question of whether the opportunity to grieve before the death lessens the length of bereavement after death or eases the pain of grief. Since grief is so complex and an individualized to the person experiencing grief, it is difficult to provide a definitive answer. Many factors affect the grieving process, including the nature of the relationship, the manner of death, and other factors.
Unresolved Grief
People who experience intense grief for an extended length of time or depression, substance abuse, or post-traumatic stress disorder in reaction to the death have unresolved or complicated grief. Grief counseling or support groups are often helpful in these cases. Counseling or group support is used to help the mourner experience, express, and adjust to painful grief-related changes and emotionally separate from the loved one and go on with life. Many times talking to others who have experienced a deep, personal loss such as the death of a loved one can help someone cope with grief.
Grief in the Workplace
Most employers provide two or three days of bereavement leave to allow time for family members to make funeral arrangements and attend services. Grief does not end with the funeral, however. In fact, it is often just beginning. Some companies are now offering grief counseling for bereaved employees and sensitivity training for their co-workers. Counseling helps the bereaved to work through their grief and training helps co-workers to understand what the bereaved are experiencing. These services will be particularly valuable as the Baby Boomers age and cope with the loss of their parents or spouses.
Sources:
- AARP
- Hospice Foundation of America
- National Cancer Institute
- National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Human Resources and Services Administration
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Aging With Dignity
Aging with Dignity publishes Five Wishes, an easy-to-use legal document that helps adults of all ages plan for the care they want in case they become seriously ill.
www.agingwithdignity.org
Caring Connections
Caring Connections is a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. It is a national consumer engagement to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Caring Connections provides a variety of free resources on end-of life issues.
www.caringinfo.org
The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families
The Dougy Center was the first center in the United States to provide peer support groups
for grieving children. The organization has served more than 14,000 children, teens and families since 1982. Through its National Center for Grieving Children and Families, the organization provides support and training locally, nationally and internationally to individuals and organizations seeking to assist children in grief. The Dougy Center is supported solely through private support from individuals, foundations and companies, and receives no state or federal funding. The Dougy Center does not charge a fee for its services.
www.grievingchild.org
Growthhouse.org
Growth House, Inc., provides an award-winning Internet portal as a international gateway to resources for life-threatening illness and end of life care. The organization’s primary mission is to improve the quality of compassionate care for people who are dying through public education and global professional collaboration. Growthhouse.org’s search engine gives you access to the Internet’s most comprehensive collection of reviewed resources for end-of-life care.
www.growthhouse.org
Hospice Foundation of America
The Hospice Foundation of America exists to help those who cope personally or professionally with terminal illness, death, and the process of grief and bereavement.
www.hospicefoundation.org
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) is the largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The organization is committed to improving end of life care and expanding access to hospice care with the goal of profoundly enhancing quality of life for people dying in America and their loved ones.
www.nhpco.org
VOICES of September 11th
VOICES of September 11th (VOICES) advocates and provides services for those affected by the events of September 11, 2001. The organization promotes public policy reform on prevention, preparedness and response to terrorism. Through its work, VOCIES of September 11 strives to build bridges between international communities changed forever by terrorism. VOICES provides information, outreach and programs to more than 7,000 members. In 2006, VOICES launched the 9/11 Living Memorial digital archive, to commemorate the lives and stories of September 11, 2001 and the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
www.voicesofsept11.org
Tags: death, foundation, grief, loss, organization, program, resouces, websites
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Social workers in all settings are learning to help dying patients and their loved ones in new and creative ways. Expressive arts therapists are opening doors to a more holistic end-of life experience.
In recent years, as medical technologies have advanced, extending the human life beyond the expected range of even our grandparents, a new focus has arisen on end-of-life care. Across the country, hospices—poorly funded as they often are—struggle to provide services that can enhance quality of life for the dying patient as well as his or her family
While efforts are often, and justifiably, directed toward palliative care, a new breed of therapists, social workers, and other personnel involved in end-of-life care is also incorporating elements of mind and spirit in work with patients who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. This new direction toward creativity, as well as the newly rediscovered respect for the role art plays in communication and emotional release, is extended to the families of patients during the bereavement process as well.
The trend toward incorporating creativity and creative expression in end-of-life care is continuing to evolve and grow according to Elizabeth Clark, PhD, ACSW, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers, Washington, DC. “We are moving toward this as a society” she continues. “There are some initiatives, such as Project on Death in America, that fund many of these programs.”
While many social workers receive little formal training in end-of-life care, Clark believes an aging population, combined with medical advances resulting in patients who live longer with chronic or terminal illness, will serve to underline the importance of including end of-life care in social work education programs. “We need social workers to pay more attention to this issue and to think about ways they can become more skilled in end-of-life care,” she says. “There is much that social workers can do to help people adapt to all of the changes and struggles involved in this period of their lives.”
Among the types of creative expression social workers and others find most helpful in working with patients who are terminally ill — and their families — are painting, quilting, poetry, music, and the dramatic arts, Clark explains. “Years ago, I was working at a hospice — in conjunction with a social worker and a creative arts therapist — with a group of children whose parents had died,” she recalls. “One of the activities was to have the children draw a mural.” Among the children’s concerns, she says, was a fear of ghosts. “So, one of the children drew a ghostbuster on the mural. This seemed to help all of the children deal more effectively with their own ghost anxieties.”
While painting and poetry are more familiar forms of art therapy, quilting has become a popular form of expression and remembrance — as evidenced by the huge AIDS quilt that travels around the country on display. Living Art also incorporates mask-making into its program, while another Montana-based organization, Chalice of Repose, offers music at the bedside of dying patients. “They use harps and actually match the music to the beating of the patient’s heart,” she describes. “It is overwhelming and amazingly effective.”
When working with patients who are terminally ill, one of the first things a social worker or therapist learns is that they are worried about the physical pain that will be associated with their deaths, according to Kathy Persson, LCSW (VA), LCSWC (MD), director of grief and loss services at the Hospices of the National Capital Region, Fairfax, VA. “Yet, what you find in working with dying patients is that the real pain at the end of life is emotional and spiritual,” she continues. “Addressing those two pieces of the problem takes a little more creativity because we have medicine to alleviate the physical pain, but not the emotional.”
Emotional pain, Persson adds, is directly connected to physical pain, since tense people tend to hold their bodies stiffly which worsens bodily discomfort. “What we have to do, as therapists, is find out what is going on with the patient and his or her family” she says.
“Often, the patient is in a good place, but the family is not. That can cause a lot of emotional pain for the patient. Persson and her colleagues incorporate shadow boxes, music, and life review in their work with hospice patients to help them return to better places in their lives, she says. “It is important for them to see their lives as a continuum, instead of what it is right at this moment. It helps people to know that their lives were good, that they had meaning, and that they affected others in a positive way.”
In creating shadow boxes, letters, journals, and other works of art, she continues, patients are also able to leave behind something they find meaningful and beautiful for their families. Persson explains that art therapy is useful for both children and adults—sometimes especially adults, who seem to have more trouble finding ways of releasing and releasing their emotions.
Helping patients and families explore difficult emotions is one of the most basic and valuable benefits of creative arts therapy in end-of-life care. “We are not only our minds, nor are we simply our bodies. Art helps people deal with life holistically and express themselves with their hearts and souls, as well as their minds,” Persson says. “It is a deeper form of expression.”
Many times, she continues, art therapy also helps people cry, allowing them to travel through layers of repression to a deeper emotional level. “It is amazing how a therapist can help a patient with a creative activity and suddenly the tears flow,” she says. Artful expressions, Persson adds, allow people to be touched emotionally when they have been holding their feelings in check by intellectualizing their experiences.
Art, poetry, music, dramatic arts, and other forms of creative therapy can also provide patients and their loved ones with a new and more creative understanding of, or approach to, death and dying. “It is important to define creative,” she cautions. “There are many different ways of being creative, and sometimes what is creative is the way in which a patient approaches his or her family, the interpersonal work they do before death.”
Those of us who are well, Persson adds, have accepted the notion that death is the most horrible thing that could happen to us. What she finds most incredible, however, is that most deaths are peaceful, with the patient achieving a state of acceptance that diffuses anger and bitterness.
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Introduction
No one likes to talk about dying and death, for yourself or your loved ones. Yet, birth and death are two aspects of life, which will happen to everyone. Dying and death are painful and personal experiences for those that are dying and their loved ones caring for them. Death affects each person involved in multiple ways, including physically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Whether the death is sudden and unexpected, or ongoing and expected, there is information and help available to address the impact of dying and death.
What Is Hospice?
Hospice is a specialized program that addresses the needs of the catastrophically ill and their loved ones. A team approach is provided in hospice that may involve physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy, home health aids, volunteers, therapists and family caregivers. Hospice workers can help a dying person manage pain, provide medical services and offer family support through every stage of the process, from diagnosis to bereavement.
Hospice services are available in the comfort of your own home, in a hospice facility, or often in settings such as nursing homes and hospitals. Many people who use hospice tell of a wonderfully positive experience with a compassionate staff who focus on caring for the whole person and their families.
Individuals enrolled in hospice have to have a doctor give them a diagnosis of six months or less to live. Many persons in the last stages of dementia-related illnesses, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory and pulmonary illnesses are now enrolled in hospice. Often, health insurance covers hospice services.
Palliative care is an approach to health care that improves quality of life for individuals and their loved ones with complications from life-limiting illness. The goal of palliative care is often accomplished by treating the physical and psychological effects of illness, especially pain.
Palliative care treats dying and death as a normal life process and intends to neither hasten nor postpone it. Instead, this type of team care offers a support system to encourage patients to live as actively and comfortably as possible until the end.
Dying is a different experience for everyone involved. A member of your loved one’s health care team can give you a more accurate idea of what to expect. Nevertheless, these signs and symptoms are typical:
- Confusion – about time, place, and identity of loved ones; visions of people and places that are not present
- A decreased need for food and drink, as well as loss of appetite – this may be caused by the body’s need to conserve energy and its decreasing ability to use foods properly
- Drowsiness – an increased need for sleep and unresponsiveness
- Withdrawal and decreased socialization – can be caused by mentally preparing for dying, decreased oxygen to the brain and decreased blood flow
- Loss of bowel or bladder control – caused by relaxing muscles in the pelvic area
- Skin becomes cool to the touch – especially in the hands and feet, skin may become bluish in color caused by decreased circulation to the extremities
- Rattling or gurgling sounds while breathing or breathing that is irregular and shallow, decreased number of breaths per minute, or breathing that switches between rapid and slow
- Involuntary movements (called myoclonus), changes in heart rate, and loss of reflexes in the legs and arms also mean that the end of life is near
At its most simple, grief is the reaction to a significant loss. Most often, it is the acutely sad and painful emotions you experience when a loved one dies. However, you can grieve if you are suffering from a terminal illness or if you have been diagnosed with a chronic condition that limits your autonomy. Ending a significant relationship, such as a marriage, or a long-term partnership, can also result in grieving. Many people are resilient and will cope with grief with the personal support of family, friends, and clergy. Some grieving individuals who experience grief in ways that impact their ongoing ability to function may need to seek professional help.
It takes time to cope with and accept your loss. You will never stop missing your loved one, yet the pain may ease with time. The best thing you can do is give yourself permission and time to grieve.
Yes. Grief is multi-layered and can impact many areas of your life – physical, social, spiritual and psychological. People who are grieving will often report difficulty sleeping and eating, frequent crying spells, irritability, an inability to focus, and be productive at work.
Grief is personal. Everyone grieves at a different pace. Again, the best thing you can do is to be patient and give yourself time to grieve.
Young people feel the loss just as acutely as adults do, yet may not know how to express their grief. It’s important to be honest with our children when they lose someone they love and offer them age-appropriate information.
A parent’s death can be especially difficult for young children, impacting their sense of security or even survival. It’s especially confusing when well-meaning adults try to protect children from the truth or even from their surviving parent’s display of grief. Very young children can also revert to earlier behaviors, ask what appears to be insensitive questions about the dead or even invent games about dying. This is all very normal behavior.
Forcing a child to attend a funeral may not be in the best interest of the child if they don’t want to go.
It is important for children to have a meaningful ritual to observe the death, such as lighting a candle, whispering a prayer or goodbye, talking to the deceased, or sending a balloon to them symbolically.
Bereavement is the period directly after the loss of a loved one when you may mourn, and feel a number of emotions or a lack of emotions. Bereaved individuals can experience shock, numbness, relief, depression, anger, sadness, acceptance, and at different points during bereavement. Bereavement is considered by many professionals to last for at least a year after someone has died, but in reality, the thoughts and feelings in bereavement often are triggered over a lifetime, but typically lessen with time.
Many people are very uncomfortable with the notion of death, even avoiding discussing it with the dying person. You may experience a range of feelings both before a loved one dies and long afterward.
The noted expert in dying and death, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, identified the stages that dying people and their families typically experience. Knowing these stages can help you to understand a dying person’s reactions, as well as your own. While these stages do not necessarily progress in the order listed, they are predictable and normal.
They are:
- Denial, or disbelief, numbness
- Anger, blaming others
- Bargaining (e.g. “If I am cured of this, I swear, I will go to church every Sunday!”)
- Depression, sadness, crying, feeling despondent
- Acceptance or coming to terms with loss and death.
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