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When You Feel “Stuck” in the Anger Stage of Grief
Mourning childhood trauma and loss can be catalysts for healing.
This article discusses how anger can become a conditioned emotional response growing up in narcissistic childhoods. The effects of living in anger and feeling “stuck” in this stage of the grieving process are also explored. This article additionally talks about how certain traumas may become catalysts that push you out of anger, and into sadness, furthering you along in your healing journey. Some of the information in this article may be triggering for some.
I don’t think people talk enough about the anger stage of grief and its implications on a person’s ability to fully move through the other stages. In our society, anger is often shamed as unnecessary or automatically linked to being a “narcissist”. Granted, anger is very common in narcissism where one of two common patterns seem to take hold: either they overcompensate their fears and vulnerabilities by puffing up their ego and living in toxic positivity, or they may become bound by anger’s grasp over them and surrender to it.
Obviously, neither of these options is emotionally healthy. And, neither of these options allows a person to experience the full gamut of grieving a loss.