In my contributions on bereavement so far I have been looking at what is called normal grief. Now I would like to look at anticipatory grief and complicated grief.
Anticipatory grieving occurs when a person has advanced warning of death. Such warning can help the bereaved cope better with post-death grief, especially if he or she has shared the anticipatory grief with the person who is going to die. But anticipatory grief does not necessarily reduce the amount of grieving the survivor has to do following the death. It really prepares the defences to cope better with the full bereavement experience. It is important to realise that anticipatory grief is never complete and if post death grief is not faced then the result can be complicated grief, which I will explain later
Tags: bereavement, grief