Healthy Grief

Healthy Grief
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Kubler Ross outlines that grieving occurs as a process in which one sways between different types of emotions. She indicates that grieving people go through grieving stages namely denial, followed by anger, followed by bargaining, followed by depression and ultimately acceptance. However, people sometimes experience the stages in their unique sequence (Lim, 2013). She indicates that the denial stage is whereby the person going through grieving is unable to admit to the facts and reality about the death of tangible or abstract things such as a loved one or a job respectively. This is accomplished either through conscious or unconscious doubt as a way of shielding themselves from experiencing the resulting negative emotions such as sadness, and helplessness among others (Lim, 2013).
Job engaged in prayer instead of wailing on receiving the news of his loss. He used worship as a way to numb himself and to allow him to survive the first moments of his loss and the shock which is an indication of denial. In Job1: 21-22 he says that the lord had taken what was his. This indicates that his children did not really belong to him. This was a way of keeping himself from directly suffering from the loss.
In the anger stage, one bears resentful attitudes towards close people. They may be bitter and angry against themselves and others. This is especially evident where the bereaved may be stubborn and display an uncooperative attitude with those perceived t be to blame for the loss (Lyon, 2000). They may also act grudgingly towards those considered privileged to have their subject of loss. They struggle with questions about why they had to suffer the loss and this is evidenced in their anger and blame towards those responsible such as doctors. In job 7: 11, Job indicates that he was bitter in his soul for losing his children and the plague that had befallen his body in the form of sores.
The third stage is bargaining whereby the person facing the loss attempts to seek a compromise with the parties with the perceived capacity to alter or revert the impending or prevalent loss. For example, a person in the verge of a relationship break up or divorce may attempt to establish the minimum of civil contact with the spouse after the separation by asking whether they can still be friends (Lyon, 2000). Also, a person facing a near death experience may negotiate with God for more days to share with loved ones in exchange for dedicating their life to serving God. The bargaining however, does not lead to useful solutions particularly when the matter at hand is a matter of life and death. Job attempts to seek a compromise with God to take away his despair. He does this in Job 9: 17 where he tells God that he did not deserve the pain as he had not displeased God in any way.
The depression stage is indicative that one may be on the road to attaining acceptance of the loss (Conroy, O'leary, & Anne, 2014). At this level, the grieving person may engage in intense emotional discomfort which may be characterized by isolation. The person may have flushes of suicidal thoughts, intense bouts of sadness and a general loss of zeal for living. In this period, it is important to refrain from coercing such people in fun activities to offer them relief. This is because such activities would only postpone the stage because it is an important stage in the grieving process. Job goes through depression for losing his children, property and his impoverished health. This is evidenced by his cursing of the day he was conceived a...