How do you deal with grief?

What is your response to grief? Do you curl up into a ball and cry? Do you become numb? Does it depend? (There are five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance - do you follow those stages?)

I think I feel waves of grief. When I first get hit with some sort of significant loss I feel very numb, the feeling of pain is delayed. I'm not sure why. Then eventually I hear a song that reminds me of the loss and suddenly I cry.

for example when this girl Zoe and I quit being friends I felt very confused, I couldn't believe what was going on, then I felt numb, then I cried a lot but I didn't want to try to talk to her. Eventually I ran into her and she was very excited and tried to hug me but I was very cold. Later Zoe and I became friends again, but when she started being inconsistent again I decided to disappear from her life, I accept it. I don't feel down about it anymore. Actually I really don't care anymore she's a bitch. However sometimes I feel nostalgic...I notice I feel nostalgia about things in general (including things unrelated to her), very often.

So how do you react to sadness? Not grief, but sadness. Do you act sad or do you withdraw? I tend to be very quiet when I feel sad and act a lot less social than I usually act. When I feel unbearably sad for too long I sort of feel "so sad that I feel psychotically happy" - like I laugh a lot and act sort of wild.

Sun - Scorpio
Moon - Gemini

By waves I'm saying sometimes I think I'm over it then I'm not over it then I'm over it.

On the outside to friends, family and work colleagues I am super up up up, sunny and happy. Then I go home, get into my shell, lock the doors and go right inside myself for the evening, this will go on as long as it takes to process the feelings.

Leo Sun
Cancer Moon

i cry for a few days then I become sort of numb. the biggest greif in my life have been deaths in my family, when I think of those people i can cry on the spot, so I have to shut those thoughts out when its not the appropriate place to cry but if im home alone ill just let it out. to this day whenever i think of my late family members i get teary eyed, im getting teary eyed as i type.

I mainly need time on my own in peace and quiet. Sometimes I need a lot of it ("Virgo solitude", I suppose). Perhaps the right person around would help, but it would have to be really the right person, not just anybody. Otherwise they just get on my nerves.