The 5 Stages of a Divorce and How to Deal With It

If you’re familiar with psychology, you might have heard about the five stages of grief. It’s said that almost everyone goes through these stages when they’re grieving the loss of a loved one. However, did you know that grieving isn’t the only event where you could experience five specific stages?

Much like grief, going through the process of a divorce also has five stages. With that in mind, you might be wondering, “What are the five stages of divorce?” Fortunately for you, it isn’t all too different from the five stages of grief. If you think about it, a divorce is essentially the death of a relationship. So, it would make sense that those stages could also apply here.

What’s more, much like how you’d need help dealing with your loss of a loved one, you’d also need some help handling your divorce. By doing so, you can make this already taxing process a lot easier for yourself. But, just what do you need help with? Questions like, “Why would I need a lawyer,” and “Do I need an aggressive family lawyer” may come up. Fortunately, there are answers to these questions.

What Stages?

When you talk about the five stages of grief, you pertain to denial, anger, bargaining, despair, and acceptance. But, oddly enough, these stages can also be found in relationships that ultimately reach the decision of a divorce. What’s more, these can be felt in varying degrees and ways.

• Denial

When you start in the denial stage, you’re usually at that point in your marriage where you don’t think that you need to get a divorce. Usually, you might be thinking that you can still work things out. Usually, these come along the lines of “giving them another chance” to “maybe it’ll go right this time”. However, as optimistic as you can be, after several failed attempts, giving things another go may not be the right thing to do anymore.

• Anger

Once you’re starting to realize that maybe things aren’t turning out the way you both hoped they would, you could start getting agitated. This is when the anger stage begins.

 

Your anger could be about various marriage-related reasons. For example, you could get mad at your spouse for not trying enough, at your marriage for not working out the way you’d hoped, or at yourself for feeling like you weren’t good enough. However, whatever the source of anger, this could typically manifest outwardly as you having a short fuse when it comes to absolutely anything.

• Bargaining

After that anger usually comes bargaining. At this stage, you’re essentially weighing your options. Now that you’re acknowledging the possibility of a divorce, you’re seeing if that would really be the right decision.

In a way, you’re deciding between the pros and cons of getting a divorce and staying together. Here, you can find yourself weighing one option against the other, figuring out which one would be the better one for you.

• Despair

Once you’ve weighed your options and figured that maybe divorce really is the next best step to take, the dread can come setting in. Of course, it will. Considering that you once saw your spouse as someone you’d spend that forever with, it can be challenging to accept that they’re not your “forever”. Even with all the happy memories and moments, it can be challenging to admit that it has to come to an end. This acknowledgement of that end usually brings people’s moods down. After all, who wouldn’t be sad after realizing a good thing is coming to an end.

• Acceptance

After you’ve gone through all that, you’re then at that stage where you’ve come to terms with your situation. At this stage, you realize that getting a divorce is the best option for you. Essentially, you’ve accepted this path and are ready to take it. This is what acceptance is.

How Do I Go About It?

With the reality of getting a divorce setting in, the next thing you’ll have to think about would be how to go about it. First, of course, there is the option of doing it yourself. However, this may not be the best course of action as the process can get very complicated. As such, you might end up going about things the wrong way and end up with an outcome that’s not best for you.

So, how do you go about it? Well, one of the best ways to deal with a divorce would be to get some legal assistance. More specifically, getting a divorce lawyer may be the best option you have.

Why Get a Lawyer?

There are several reasons why you might want to get a lawyer, specifically a family lawyer from Divorce Lawyer Cook County. However, one of the most important reasons would be because they can offer you the most valuable help throughout the entire process.

• Their Knowledge and Experience

A family lawyer can give you the most valuable help throughout the entire divorce process because these cases are their bread and butter. As such, they’ll have the knowledge and experience needed to navigate through this situation in the best possible way. So, it makes perfect sense that having them around can help make the process more bearable and manageable for you.

• They’ll Fight For You

Aside from the knowledge and experience, a lawyer will also ensure that you get the best possible outcome from your divorce. As they are working for you, they’ll ensure you get what’s best for you. That means they’ll fight for the property division that is rightfully yours and even get you things like spousal support if need be.

Moving Forward

Going through a divorce can be an ordeal, one that can even begin before you decide to get one. But unfortunately, things don’t get any easier after you go through the stages of a divorce. That’s why it’s always a good idea to get some help when the time to file for divorce comes.

In this case, getting the help of a family lawyer can help make an already difficult situation more bearable. With their help, you can at least be assured that the process will be more manageable, and you will get an outcome that’s most favorable for you.