Anticipatory grief

This can be experienced by dying individuals themselves[1] and can also be felt due to non-death-related losses like a pending divorce, company downsizing, or war.

The five stages model of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, as proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross – describes the process people undergo after learning of their own diagnosis of terminal illness.

Researchers suggest that to start to grieve as though the loss has already happened can leave the bereaved feeling guilt for partially abandoning the patient.

Bouchal, Rallison and Sinclair discuss that, "the strong need to offer protection was part of the anticipatory mourning experience of striving to be with in the present".

More specifically, parents reported experiencing increasing stress and a decrease in physical and mental health – all of which affect the process of anticipatory grief.

This 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld depicts David's anticipatory grief. First he was warned that his child would die. Then, "The Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became very ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his house stood beside him, urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them."( 2 Samuel 12:14–17 )