Grief is the price we pay for loving. There are many different circumstances that one might need to grieve, such as processing a breakup, drug of choice, friendship or change in life. This could be processing a breakup, drug of choice, friendship, change in life or much more. No matter what, it is a difficult process and a completely natural and necessary response to change.

               Grief is personal, and everyone experiences it in a different way. There are five stages of grief and loss as commonly explained in support groups. These are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. There are many factors that affect how long someone stays in each of these stages. Perhaps they may not even experience them in that order or at all. It is important to identify these stages and understand that others experience them as well and differently.

Denial is the first stage, similar to addiction where the person does not even realize there is a problem. In this case, the person is not allowing their self to believe what is happening. Bargaining occurs when one is already in the beginning stages of processing their grief and loss, and they look for other ways of altering their situation. Then reality sets in which is called the Depression stage, to upset to handle what is going on in their life. Finally, they reach Acceptance and can acknowledge what has happened and realize there is nothing that can be done to change it.

These stages are not linear. As mentioned before, every individual is different and will handle their grief in loss differently. They may jump back and forth between stages. It is a process and the ability to understand what is happening may make it more bearable.