Sunday, June 15, 2008

The 5 stages - Kubler -Ross Model

I was watching this movie 'the bucket list' the other day, firstly i must say its an amazing movie and everyone definitely has to watch it -its inspiring,its about 2 people who have been diagnosed with cancer and have been given 6 months to live and happen to share the same room in a hospital and get to meet each other.They decide to make something called a 'bucket list' - a list of all the things they want to do before they die and go about doing it.

I heard the concept of 5 stages of grief for the first time in the movie and when i heard it i thought it was so very simple yet so profound- we do it all the time but dont realise it and somebody just gave it a model and it just becomes a conscious process and we suddenly become aware of our grief and probably we can handle it better.Here how it goes.

The Kübler-Ross model describes, in five discrete stages, the process by which people deal with grief and tragedy, especially when diagnosed with a terminal illness.

The five stages are

DENIAL - ANGER - BARGAINING - DEPRESSION - ACCEPTANCE


Kübler-Ross originally applied these stages to any form of catastrophic personal loss (job, income, freedom). This also includes the death of a loved one,terminal disease, divorce, drug addiction, or infertility. Kübler-Ross also claimed these steps do not necessarily come in the order noted above, nor are all steps experienced by all patients, though she stated a person will always experience at least two.

But in most of the cases it always ends with Acceptance.

Beautiful word isn't it - Simple but so profound - 'ACCEPTANCE'

3 comments:

Anupama said...

Yes, 'Acceptence' is also very very liberating. But, only when one truly accepts the situation. And, it is very often construed in a negavtive sense - when one says "I've accepted my situation", very often the sayer him/herself means 'I've resigned to my fate', or the listener thinks it is so. But, acceptence is the first and most important step to redemption from the situation!

mawhyyouare said...

I agree.But dont you think a negative sense would mean a depression and not a true 'acceptance' as such.

Anupama said...

Yes, that is why I said acceptance is liberating only when it is true. And, that is why many times depression is quiet difficult to diagnose....