Does grief proceed in stages?
Some people prefer to think of grief as progressing through stages. For instance, we could infer from the previous answer that there are three distinct stages to grief: shock/numbness, emotional suffering, and acceptance/resolution. The problem with this model is that grieving rarely progresses in a smooth, stepwise fashion. Although most people do experience some degree of numbness initially, it is completely normal to return to numbness or denial repeatedly throughout the grief process. Grief is frequently described as a roller-coaster. One can shift from feeling “normal” at one moment, to crying bitterly in the next moment, to feeling numb a little later, etc. Mood swings can happen in cycles of weeks, days, or hours. A person might reach “resolution” only to find that the grief resurfaces at a later date when a reminder of the loss occurs, such as on a birthday or anniversary.
