Melissa Martin joins Debbie and Judy in discussing the stages of remembering one’s memories which is a grieving and healing process. As a brief summary, we listed one model of the 7 stages of grieving. Grieving and healing is not a linear process.
- Shock, numbness and denial. numbness -you feel emotionally numb and may deny the loss or memory
- Pain, guilt, searching for answers – the pain of the loss starts to set in
- Depression, loneliness, despair and disorganization
- Anger, bargaining- may lash out at people you love or become angry with yourself or you might try to ‘strike a bargain’ with Creator or others
- The upward turn -adjust to your new life, and the intensity of the pain you feel from the loss starts to reduce
- Reconstruction and working through the process- taking action to move forward
- Acceptance, reorganization, help and recovery- accept the loss and feel hope