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Healthy Grief

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Healthy grief

Healthy Grief
Elizabeth Garcia
Grand Canyon University: Spirituality and Christian Values in Health Care and Wellness
Dr. Sunshine Weeks
May 4, 2012, 2012

Grief is a natural reaction to a loss that most humans experience at some point. Grief does not necessarily occur after the death of a loved one, but it can also occur after a diagnosis of an illness, a breakdown of a relationship, infertility, addiction, financial difficulties or job loss. These are examples of great magnitude stressors, and as a result, lead to an emotional response to trauma, and therefore, to live a duel. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who worked with terminally ill patients, providing comfort and support, developed a model known as "The five stages of grief." These stages are a very helpful tool to understand the stages that family members or either ourselves can go through when we live a duel, a perfect example that we can understand these stages is the story of the suffering of Job in the bible. In everyday life, people are experiencing losses like the loss of some friends who are going for personal reasons or death, loss of skills or habits, change of school, home, single life is lost, a divorce or separation, losses more severe than others. For each loss, the person experiences a process of suffering until the person reaches the acceptance that the lost thing or person are no longer with them. This process is called "duel" and as a process, it has its stages. According to Elisabeth Kubler Ross's five stages are: Denial is the first stage of grief that allows us to cushion the pain to unexpected and impressive news. Then denial is replaced by anger, envy and resentment. The struggle of facing the difficult reality, plus the anger with people and with God, the stage of trying to reach an agreement to try to overcome the traumatic

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