They asked me to contract certain muscles in my stomach and I was like, what muscles?

I'm Angela Duckworth.

I'm Stephen Dovner.

And you're listening to no stupid questions.

Today on the show is denial a helpful method of dealing with grief?

I think that every single one of us has been in denial at least once.

Not me.

I never denied anything.

Angela, we have a question here from a listener named Anna, which I think you will find very

interesting and fairly provocative.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

So Anna writes that she's 23 years old.

She's a biology research associate and she wants to know, is there recorded evidence

of denial having a comforting effect on the negative physiological responses to grief?

Hmm.

This sounds like not a question that people just ask out of pure academic curiosity.

This is true.

She writes literally, there is a story behind my question when she was quite young around

nine years old, a beloved family member passed away.

She writes, though he was sick and the family suspected his death was nearing the news still

came suddenly and felt unexpected.

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