The Never Ending Cycle of Grief

In my psych 101 class back in college I learned about the 5 stages of grieving.


1. Denial "It can't be happening."

2. Anger "Why me? It's not fair."

3. Bargaining "I'll do anything to make this better."

4. Sadness "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"

5. Acceptance "It's going to be OK."


You learn that people don't go through all of them when they experience a tragedy but they do go through some of them with the eventual hopeful goal to be able to achieve acceptance.

With the death of a loved one it may take time but most people do eventually achieve acceptance.

With the birth of a disabled child, you do achieve acceptance as well, but the difference is that it doesn't end there. The loss confronts you on a daily basis. So just when you think you have finally accepted the situation, something happens that gets the whole mourning cycle going again.

The cycle began with...