Angrief

Language for the Bereaved

Kellyn Shoecraft
4 min readOct 12, 2019
Stickfigures displaying frustrating behaviors typically found after loss.
Image Credit: www.hereforyou.co

This is angrief — the unique version of anger that you will likely find at the depths of your grief.

I am really angry that my sister died, and I often imagine myself shouting a big F*CK YOU to the people who have (usually unknowingly) pissed me off.

It would actually be less of a shout and more of a roar, my voice descending to a pitch I could never achieve naturally. But I haven’t…

…at least not yet.

Angrief…isn’t that one of the 5 stages of grief? (no)

Angrief should not be included as one of the five stages of grief AKA the Kübler-Ross model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance). While the five stages of grief are now widely (mis)understood to be the way that we respond to the death of a loved one, the model was actually crafted to describe the processing of patients with a terminal diagnosis.

There is nothing tidy about grief.

Many bereaved people do experience the emotions outlined by the stages in some form or another, but it is not a linear process. There is nothing tidy about grief.

There are also those who don’t feel angrief (my husband is one of them!) — even when their loss is out-of-order or…

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Kellyn Shoecraft

Navigating sibling & parent loss and trying to change the way people support each other in grief. Founder at www.hereforyou.co