8 Words for Those Who Care
I love this bit of wisdom from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, “Denial helps us to pace our feelings of grief. There is a grace in denial. It is nature’s way of letting in only as much as we can handle.” And grief is the appropriate word here. Any loss, including the loss of health, prompts a grief response.
On top of that, we process grief at different speeds. There exists no “one size fits all” model for grief after a death, a loss of health, or any significant life change. It just takes time to work through it. Often, the initial response of denial is one of our first steps in that direction.
This should make you feel better. Unless your spouse has been suffering from an autoimmune disease for twenty years and you still think it’s all in their head. In that case, you should probably feel bad!
For the rest of us, whether we are processing the loss of normal, the loss of health, or the loss of a loved one, resisting reality for a while is natural. It’s just not helpful in the long run. Of course, most of us awaken to bitter reality soon enough to move into action.
But for today, know that denial is part of the process, just not a place to camp out forever.
