# Journey from Denial to Acceptance



## Retired

There are times when the shock of one's realization of some personal discovery overloads their ability to deal with the knowledge at that time and they might go into denial.

Later on through counseling, and support that person achieves acceptance of the their discovery and have learned to deal with it.

What are the usual intermediate steps between denial and acceptance that one must go through in order to achieve satisfactory acceptance?


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## ThatLady

I'd say that going from denial to acceptance is, indeed, the same process as grieving, as articulated by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. The first step in grieving is denial, the last is acceptance. In between, one goes through anger, bargaining, and depression. The steps may not occur in that order for everyone, but each will occur.


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## Retired

I believe this is the process I wanted to learn more about.   Could you point me to a ersource which elaborates on the dynamics of the healing process, so I can better understand the phases.

Thanks!


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## ThatLady

This site has some pretty good information, and some recommended reading. I'll see what else I can find. I haven't read Kubler-Ross' book in some time.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~ucs/griefloss.html


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## ThatLady

Here's another that looks pretty good. 

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/grief_loss.htm


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## Retired

In some ways, people who themselves are diagnosed or more importantly when their child is diagnosed with a disorder,  a similar process of denial to acceptance takes place.

We frequently meet parents whose child is diagnosed with Tourette go through this process, so I would like to familiarize myself with the steps needed to get through this process, to point parents in need in the right direction.


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## ThatLady

Methods for dealing with grieving issues would be excellent for this purpose, TSOW. It is, after all, grieving. The parents are grieving for what they see as a loss of "normality" for their child. People diagnosed with any serious illness, grieve for the loss of their perceived "healthy state". For this reason, it's a good thing to know about grief, how it progresses, and what can help people cope with the feelings it brings on.


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## Retired

I really appreciate your help with this TL!  You've provided me some insights as well as resources I will use to develop some kind of bulleted text that people might download and carry for easy reference.

If anyone is familiar with something already made that could be useful, please let us know.

No sense in re inventing the _keyboard_


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## ThatLady

I think the first site I gave you (the U. of Iowa site) consists of a handout they've made available for their campus counselling service.


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