5 stages

According to Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, there are five states of grief:  denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  I learned this when I was in seventh grade when my Catholic education teacher was explaining the process of dying, and it has always stayed with me.  I have at times been preoccupied with the possible death of my loved ones, though I have never had anybody die whom I was close enough with to experience these stages.

However, it was not until recently when I realized that these stages were not just limited to physical death, but that these stages could be attributed to a metaphorical death - the death of a dream, the death of an idea, the death of what you think your existence is (or should be), and the ultimate acceptance of who you really are.