Tug-of-War: Navigating the Bargaining Stage of Grief in All Its Forms

The bargaining stage has something particularly maddening about it. One moment, you’re accepting what happened; the next, you’re crafting elaborate deals with the universe that could somehow undo the loss. It's like being caught in an eternal tug-of-war with reality. And here's the thing about grief that nobody tells you: it isn't reserved only for when someone dies. It comes for us in countless forms—when relationships end, when friendships dissolve, when one of our dreams have to be abandoned, when our identities shift, when possibilities close, when the future we imagined disappears.