Triggering Of An Emotional Breakdown

Do you know the 15 stages of emotional healing?

They represent the 15 steps in the natural healing process after you have suffered an emotional breakdown.

Let’s begin by learning about ’emotions’ first.

Emotions are profound feelings that we humans are born with.

The most significant human emotions include happiness, joy, love, kindness, empathy, gratitude, fear, anger, disappointment, and sadness.

The presence of these emotions within us plays a vital role in making us human.

Thus, it won’t be wrong to see the term ’emotional beings’ as a synonym of the word ‘human beings.’

Positive emotions like happiness, love, and joy make our lives great and worth living.

However, negative emotions like fear, anger, and sadness can make our lives difficult, painful, and sad.

We will discuss later how these negative emotions get triggered within us due to uncontrollable circumstances.

The spread of these negative emotions within us renders us emotionally hurt or even devastated sometimes.

It’s a complex space to be in, as being emotionally hurt takes your life close to becoming completely dysfunctional.

It affects you deeply, and you don’t know how to overcome it.

The good news is that the natural emotional healing process begins when we get emotionally hurt.

It ensures we do not remain stuck in sadness.

It also helps us become capable of achieving our true selves once again.

This process of emotional healing has 15 underlying stages.

Knowing these stages is crucial as it lets you feel assured of getting emotionally healed.

Also, when you are emotionally hurt, these stages help you keep track of your emotional recovery and healing.

Thus, knowing the stages of emotional healing can help one stay patient during any emotional upheaval. 

Thus, it’s vital to know about the various stages of emotional healing.

So, let’s discover and learn about the various stages of emotional healing.

Stages Of Emotional Healing

As you already know, there are 15 stages of emotional healing.

The first seven stages signify the ’emotional struggle’ after the emotional breakdown.

The last seven stages signify an ’emotional recovery’ or your natural movement towards emotional healing.

Between them sits the stage of ’emotional stability,’ which serves as a foundation for the natural emotional healing process.

Let’s begin with the first of the fifteen stages of emotional healing.

Getting Emotionally Hurt

The first stage in the stages of emotional healing is getting emotionally hurt.

The stages of emotional healing begin only when you get emotionally hurt. Thus, the latter is the first stage of emotional healing.

We humans are almost incapable of hurting ourselves emotionally.

Thus, getting emotionally hurt mostly happens through an external source.

Specifically, it can happen in one of the following five ways:

• Due to a prolonged sickness

• When you are abused by someone, emotionally or physically.

• While going through a painful breakup with your partner

• After being cheated on by your partner

• When you lose someone close to you

Each of the above possible causes of emotional breakdown removes something precious or something you felt emotionally connected to.

For greater clarity, we will use the example of ‘going through a painful breakup’ wherever necessary in the article.

When you go through a painful breakup, the loss is in the form of your partner.

It ends your relationship with them towards which you had worked very hard for a long time.

You had put your heart and soul into it, but now, as you move toward the final moments of your relationship, it will all be wasted.

When it finally happens, the resultant loss becomes emotionally unbearable, which ultimately pushes you into emotional turmoil.

Thus, you enter the first of the fifteen stages of emotional healing by getting emotionally hurt.

Shock/Disbelief

The second of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is ‘shock’ or ‘disbelief.’

When there is an emotional breakdown due to a trigger incident, you enter a state of shock or disbelief.

Doing so, you try to get a hold of what has happened.

It happens because you didn’t expect what has happened and don’t know how to react.

The ‘shock’ stage is essential in the natural emotional healing process but also has an individual or exclusive significance.

If you do not enter a state of shock after the emotional breakdown, you will stay in denial of what has happened.

Thus, you will not be able to accept the truth and hence move on in the process of being emotionally healed.

So, shock helps you stay mentally open and accept what has happened so you can move on to the next stage of emotional healing.

Once you have overcome the ‘shock,’ you have completed the second of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Confusion

The third of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is ‘confusion.’

At the end of the second stage, when you finally register what has happened, you start wondering why it happened.

It is the stage of confusion in the stages of emotional healing.

In this stage, you are trying to find an answer that can explain the horrific incident that led to your emotional breakdown.

If you had to go through a painful breakup, you want to know who was responsible for it: you, your partner, or the circumstances.

Knowing the actual reason behind the incident will help you calm down and get closure.

Also, you can learn from the episode and prepare yourself for the future.

When the confusion is over, you have completed the third of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Self-Blame

The fourth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is that of ‘self-blame.’

Upon finding out the single most significant reason for the incident that led to your emotional breakdown, eventually, you start blaming yourself for it.

You feel that you were at fault more than anyone else or the circumstances.

In case of a breakup, you blame yourself for not being strong enough to have done the right things.

You still blame yourself even when you know it was your partner’s mistake, as you could not see it coming.

You blame yourself for trusting them and loving them unconditionally.

Blaming yourself at this stage is subconsciously done by you for two reasons.

First, you want to become more responsible so that you won’t have to experience painful breakups in the future.

Second, you know that to deserve emotional healing, you must go through the test of self-blame and clear yourself of it.

Thus, blaming yourself ends with learning to forgive yourself and moving on.

When you have stopped blaming yourself for the trigger incident, you have completed the fourth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Mental Suffering Or Sadness

The fifth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is mental suffering or sadness.

You may have learned to forgive yourself for the incident that triggered your emotional breakdown, but the loss you suffered was actual.

Thus, you still find it difficult to forget what you lost and are sad about it.

In case of a breakup, you keep thinking about the good memories of your ex and your relationship.

You miss those moments and feel deeply sad that you are no longer together.

But this sadness isn’t necessarily about losing your partner but for your own good.

The purpose behind feeling sad about the breakup is to learn the value of relationships and try your best to hang on to them.

Your sadness will drastically reduce when you learn lessons from your last relationship and the breakup.

Although it still pains whenever you think about the loss, you also know that you will do better going forward.

When the mental suffering or sadness is over, you have completed the fifth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Uncertainty

The sixth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is ‘uncertainty.’

When you get over the pain and sadness related to the incident that triggered your emotional breakdown, uncertainty grips you.

You have learned your lesson from the past and are ready to improve going forward, but will you get another chance to show improvement?

Will you find a partner or have the opportunity to be in a relationship again?

And even if you do, when will that happen, and how will things unfold in that relationship?

These questions create a lot of uncertainty in your mind about the future.

Without a doubt, this uncertainty is terrifying, but with time, it turns into patience within you.

It teaches you to wait for the right time and person and lets you know it’s worth it.

This newfound patience helps you move on to the next stage of emotional healing.

When you have overcome the ‘uncertainty,’ you have completed the sixth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Emptiness/Loneliness

The seventh of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is that of Emptiness or Loneliness.

The patience that uncertainty creates within you has an ugly side: emptiness or loneliness.

When you undergo an emotional breakdown, you aren’t able to connect with anyone emotionally for a long time.

In case of a breakup, you cannot enter a new relationship for a long time.

And if you try to make it happen forcefully by going out of the way, it makes you prone to getting further emotionally hurt.

It may push you to the brink where the damage gets deeper and graver than what you suffered the last time.

Your inner self knows this, so you become emotionally reserved and do not want to enter relationships.

It makes you enter the phase of emptiness or loneliness in the stages of emotional healing.

During this phase, you feel empty within and lonely on the outside.

At first, it seems like a punishment and something challenging to go through.

But as time passes, the silver lining of the stage starts appearing.

You notice that by staying alone, the emptiness within has fallen drastically.

It means you are now emotionally more stable, self-dependent, and fulfilled.

In other words, you have become less prone to getting emotionally hurt by others or external situations.

At this point, your emotional struggle ends, and you enter the pathbreaking stage of ’emotional stability.’

When you have overcome the emptiness and loneliness, you have completed the seventh of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Emotional Stability

The eighth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is that of ’emotional stability.’

When you have entered the stage of emotional stability, the stages of emotional recovery haven’t started yet.

But the good news is that you are now out of the problematic stages or the stages of struggle in emotional healing.

So you are no longer emotionally volatile or vulnerable.

The incident that triggered your emotional breakdown no longer haunts you.

You have made peace with it and are thus building a solid foundation for your emotional recovery.

How did you become emotionally stable?

The stage of loneliness played the most significant role in it.

It helped you develop your internal emotional support system, gain emotional perspective, and thus become more emotionally robust, resilient, and intelligent.

But to a great extent, the stage of uncertainty also helped.

The patience you developed during the uncertainty stage laid the foundation for the loneliness stage.

Thus, the uncertainty and loneliness stages played the most significant roles in stabilizing you emotionally.

And when you become emotionally stable, you are ready to fast-track your emotional recovery and healing path.

When you have become emotionally stable, you have completed the eighth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Social Normalcy

The ninth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is ‘social normalcy.’

When life broke you emotionally, you had no other choice but to curtail your social presence and connections.

Doing this was important as you were emotionally too sensitive back then.

But now that you are emotionally stable and much more confident, you are ready to make yourself socially more available.

You know that struggle happens alone, but for recovery to start, you must be in the open and around people.

So, you start normalizing your social presence, meetings, and engagements.

As you socialize after a long time, you may initially feel hesitant or uncomfortable, but soon, you will feel adapted and flowing.

And it’s a big step in your journey towards natural emotional healing.

Meeting your friends, colleagues, and new people washes away doubts, negativities, fears, and concerns.

For the first time since suffering an emotional breakdown, you start seeing the hope of getting emotionally healed.

When social normalcy returns for you, you have completed the ninth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Hope

The tenth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is that of ‘hope.’

Before you started meeting people, you were skeptical about how your emotions would unfold in front of them.

You doubted whether you could open up to them and connect with them emotionally.

There were also some fears regarding getting emotionally overwhelmed, which could trigger an emotional breakdown within you once again.

But when you start meeting people again, your emotions reactivate.

You start reconnecting with people emotionally in a way that is even better than before.

That’s the beauty of human emotions. They may be fragile and prone to occasional damage, but they also get repaired once you are ready.

So, when your emotions are brought to life and put to use again, they start healing automatically.

It raises your hopes of getting emotionally healed.

Apart from this, the people you meet are full of respect and praise for your courage after the emotional breakdown.

They also show hope and support for you to get emotionally healed fully and soon.

It further boosts your confidence and hope to get emotionally healed.

When you start feeling hopeful of being emotionally healed, you have completed the tenth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Positivity

The eleventh of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is that of ‘positivity.’

When hope stays within you for a considerable amount of time, it starts taking the form of positivity. 

This positivity strengthens your belief in getting emotionally healed soon.

Your positivity reaches a level where you also start looking for a replacement for the loss you suffered during the trigger incident.

So, in case of a breakup, you start looking for a partner with whom you can build an emotional bond and relationship from scratch. 

Brimming with positivity, you find your soul mate.

The new, better, stronger relationship helps you heal emotionally.

It helps you overcome the last relationship, the painful memories of separation, and its underlying loss.

Thus, when you have become positive, you have completed the eleventh of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Trust

The twelfth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is trust.

Once you become positive and seek a new partner, you will meet your soul mate soon.

This new partner of yours will be far better than the one with whom you broke up recently.

Also, gaining strength from all the previous stages of emotional healing, you are in the perfect position to start trusting someone.

Thus, it will be far easier to start trusting your new partner.

And trusting someone is a big sign and a step towards emotional healing.

The ability to trust fully depends on one’s emotional health.

It means that you cannot trust someone and still be emotionally damaged.

Thus, trusting someone shows you are very close to healing fully emotionally.

So, once you start trusting your new partner, you will experience a giant leap in your emotional health and healing.

When you are ready to trust again, you have completed the twelfth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Happiness

The thirteenth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is happiness.

When you have the perfect partner, they fill your life with happiness.

They have a significant positive impact on your emotional health and fulfillment.

A perfect partner rarely hurts your emotions; they understand, respect, and cater to your emotional needs.

It raises your trust in them, making you feel fulfilled and happy.

Also, when you meet your soul mate after a debilitating emotional breakdown, it isn’t easy, but still a satisfying and fulfilling journey.

When your life becomes full of happiness after finding your soul mate, you have already reached one of the best stages of emotional healing.

When you have become happy again, you have completed the thirteenth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Self Love

The fourteenth of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is that of self-love.

Generally, self-love happens first, fills you with happiness, and eventually helps you find your soulmate.

But in this case, since we are moving from an emotional breakdown towards emotional healing, self-love is last in this sequence.

Self-love is vital to emotional healing; the latter is incomplete without the former.

Although you are happy now, this happiness cannot be sustainable without self-love.

For sustainable happiness, happiness must be “inner” and not just “outer.”

When happiness is only external, you remain emotionally vulnerable and thus still prone to emotional breakdowns.

It makes inner happiness very important in the process of emotional healing.

You can achieve inner happiness only while in love with yourself, as both these concepts are synonymous.

Also, being in control of your emotions is essential to getting fully emotionally healed.

And to be in complete control of your emotions, you must again fill yourself with self-love.

Your higher self knows this requirement of self-love in your life.

It knows that one of the main reasons why you underwent an emotional breakdown in the first place was a lack of self-love in your life.

So, it wants you to develop self-love so you are no longer susceptible to an emotional breakdown.

Thus, while healing emotionally, once you achieve happiness, you start developing self-love.

You discover your true self, engage in self-love activities, and make self-love a habit.

When you successfully develop self-love, you are one step away from being fully emotionally healed.

When you have started loving yourself, you have completed the fourteenth of the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Emotional Healing

The last of the fifteen stages of emotional healing is getting emotionally healed fully by understanding its true meaning.

It’s essential to understand the true meaning of getting fully emotionally healed so that you do not have to experience an emotional breakdown ever again in your life.

Getting emotionally healed fully involves the following:

• Overcoming the struggles of an emotional breakdown.

• Becoming emotionally stable, more robust, and intelligent.

• Becoming capable of emoting, socializing, and reconnecting again.

• Finding the perfect replacement for the loss that led to the emotional breakdown.

• Starting your self-love journey (which you can also see as ’emotional empowerment’ of self).

These steps help you overcome emotional breakdown, reestablish the emotional connection, and stay emotionally healthy. 

Thus, they put you in a better position than what you were in before suffering the emotional breakdown.

Also, they ensure that you never experience another emotional breakdown.

It is the true meaning of being fully emotionally healed; when you understand it, you heal fully emotionally.

At this point, you have completed all the 15 stages of emotional healing.

Start Using Your Emotions To Your Benefit

The various stages of emotional healing are all about basic human emotions.

Human beings are a storehouse of emotions, which makes them emotionally vulnerable. 

They are like a sack full of gunpowder.

And a simple trigger like a breakup can cause an emotional breakdown in you.

However, you can also use the same emotions positively and as your strengths.

For that to happen, you first need to get emotionally healed naturally.

Use the above 15 stages of emotional healing to not lose heart, keep moving forward, and track your progress in the natural emotional healing process. 

When fully emotionally healed, you need to start loving yourself even more to empower yourself emotionally.

Self-love will ensure that you do not suffer any more emotional breakdowns.

When you become almost entirely insulated from emotional breakdowns, that is when you can start using your emotions in your favor.

In this state, you can use every emotion in the best possible way to make them help you accomplish your objectives.

So, use the 15 stages of emotional healing to make your emotions yield what you desire.