The five stages of rejection we’ve all experienced

Rejection can be hard for many people to take. No actually, everyone. Whether it be a job interview you thought you nailed, a friend who turned away, or the love of your life turning you down, we've all been there. 

Here are the five stages of dealing with rejection:

1. Denial
This is the stage where you bury your head in the sand and pretend 'the incident' never happened. 

2. Anger
At your ex, the person who turned you down, the universe, yourself. Everyone is out to get you, nothing is working out for you. You feel hard done by and will not let anything pass. Try to avoid emailing/texting/calling whoever it is you hate right now. It's a bad idea, this stage will pass. 

3. Bargaining
Reverting back to denial, you still can’t accept that there’s nothing you can do to change their mind. You promise to change, to be a better person, you email the college and tell them you’ll take up extra classes or work for free on campus, you ask for a second interview, you promise that guy you'll change. 

4. Depression
Usually the stage where you spend days in bed, not getting washed or dressed. Feeling hopeless and either overeating or under-eating. Friends, housemates and family don’t know what to do because you are feeling so hopeless. Nothing they can say will penetrate the depressive cloud that has formed all around you. You feel like you will never be accepted anywhere by anyone. You see yourself as a failure. You still blame everyone else but now you’re blaming yourself too. You have no energy to be angry anymore. You’re done with that, all you feel is sad and alone.

5. Acceptance
Finally, you come to terms with everything. This can happen suddenly, or gradually, bit by bit. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to be jumping around thinking life is great but you’ll be able to deal and move on. You’ll get into another college, you’ll be in another relationship and you’ll be attracted to another person. You recognize that you totally over-reacted, but you're human and everyone deals with it. Hopefully you won’t go through it again but now that you have, you might handle it better next time. Everything is going to be okay. Okay?

via our content partner CT