The Six Stages of Unemployment

Well, you don't have to hanged by the neck until dead to see your way through being out of work.
Fortunately!
But when you do lose your job, some things you don't anticipate will happen to you.
Your life will change in ways you don't expect, and at the time, probably don't want.

Much like Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's theory on dealing with death, I've broken the process down into six stages. Strangely, just as you adapt to being without work, so too you must go through a grieving process when you get work again. Some parts of the cycle will recur when you are once again employed! This is because your life is again changing in unexpected ways, and you have to acclimate to yet another way of living.

Dr. Kubler-Ross, late in life

The six cycles I've identified are
1. Shock
2. Rejection
3. Fear
4. Immobilization
5. Desperation
6. Resignation
This is much like Dr. Kubler-Ross's five steps of dealing with death, but it has some distinctions. Also like that cycle, you may not experience these things in that order. But odds are you will experience them all.
That makes sense, because when you have your job removed from your life, someone has died- the person you were when doing that job in those circumstances no longer exists.
The important thing about this is to not be a brave soldier.
Wallow in it. Not forever, but long enough to deal.
Unless you have the will of a machine, you're going to feel bad whether you acknowledge it or not. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you can get back to the work of your life.
Also, bear in mind that some of that work does not stop when your job is taken away!
In the next couple weeks, I'll explore each of these steps.
If you disagree with my take on this, have at it! A job search, like democracy or life itself, is a work in progress, not a place for easy answers!