Grief is a normal process that people go through when a loved one passes away. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed that people go through five stages of grief or mourning:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
The first stage is denial, a defense mechanism that begins with the refusal to accept the loss. An example is to keep thinking that the person who passed away is going to arrive eventually. Later on, the person may think that life is meaningless, etc.
It might sound as this stage does not help however, according to research, denial gives you time to gradually process the bad news. Through denial, an individual can begin to understand what happened and may help you cope with the situation.
