1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance.
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Can the *bargaining* in #3 include threats? “If you do x to me, I am going to come back at you with _________” (insert specific retaliation). That’s more the malign type of *bargaining* I associate with the DS.
I also associate *depression* with a more passive-aggressive response. “I am now just out of here because you have made me not even care about any of this.” ie: it is someone else’s fault. Playing the victim.
*Acceptance*: “I see what you did, even though my own actions were all justified and your own fault.” ie: “I accept that you have bested me, but it doesn’t matter because I was acting on the side of the angels.”
We aren’t dealing with normal grief or guilt.
Most emphatically not.
Given the amounts of cash, ego and....well, might as well call it by its name...pure evil involved in this exercise, those five steps (JMHO) may be reduced and redefined as:
1. Denial
2. Initial anger leading to limited (covert and/or tasked to others) violence
3. Overt violence and attempted intimidation
4. All-out warfare (No quarter)
Again JMHO, we are presently in the final phases of Step 2 above.
"Fasten your seatbelts", I think has been published a few times around here. I'd add "Don't leave home without Protection".
...not to mention, "This is no game."