Market guidance: This article draws on resources from both Korea and the United States. Information specific to each country is marked as 🇰🇷 Korea or 🇺🇸 U.S. in the text below.
Have you ever sat beside your aging parents and felt, suddenly, that you are already losing them? Watching a mother whose personality has changed because of dementia, a father who can no longer move freely—there are moments when your chest feels hollow. That feeling is grief. And that grief has a name: anticipatory grief.
Anticipatory grief is the complex emotional response—sorrow and feeling—that you experience when you sense an impending loss before a loved one has passed away. 🇺🇸 U.S. The Caregiver Action Network describes it as "a natural response that emerges when caring for someone with a long-term illness or a condition like Alzheimer's that changes a person's very character." The person is still there beside you, but the realization that they are no longer who they were triggers this emotion.
🇺🇸 U.S. According to a 2025 survey by A Place for Mom, more than two in five family caregivers experience sadness weekly, and one in three or more repeatedly experience depression or a loss of independence. Approximately three in ten caregivers experience guilt, sadness, and anger weekly. 🇺🇸 U.S. Additionally, one-third of caregivers reported that their mental health worsened after they began caregiving.
🇰🇷 Korea Domestic academic research also shows that the higher the caregiving stress among families caring for dementia patients, the more depression and "caregiving guilt" rise together (research published in a journal of the Korean Clinical Psychology Association). 🇰🇷 Korea In the Ministry of Health and Welfare's 2024 National Mental Health Knowledge and Attitude Survey, the proportion reporting severe stress increased by more than 10 percentage points, from 36.0% in 2022 to 46.3% in 2024. When mental health problems arise, the first source of help people turn to is "family and relatives" (49.4%). This figure shows that the pattern of bearing emotions alone within the family remains deeply rooted.
Anticipatory grief manifests in many ways. There is the loss you feel when your parents no longer recognize you, the guilt of "I wish I had done more for them," the helplessness of not knowing when caregiving will end, and even bewilderment at yourself for feeling these things. All of this is part of anticipatory grief. What matters is understanding that these feelings are not evidence that you are a poor caregiver, but rather evidence that you deeply love the person you are caring for.
So how can you learn to live with these emotions? First, give your feelings a name. Simply learning the term "anticipatory grief" can bring a sense of relief—"I'm not abnormal." Second, write about it. 🇺🇸 U.S. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Caregiver Support Program recommends that journaling and art journaling help in processing emotions. Third, maintain connection. 🇺🇸 U.S. Online and in-person support groups with other caregivers who share your experience can genuinely help reduce feelings of isolation. Fourth, 🇰🇷 Korea make use of family counseling services offered at nearby mental health and welfare centers or dementia care centers. You do not have to carry this burden alone.
Instead of suppressing your sadness or scolding yourself for feeling it, please allow yourself to acknowledge that emotion today, even if only for a moment. Caregivers deserve to be cared for too. Sierra Care Advisor is here to walk alongside you, no matter what emotional ground you stand on, and to help you find your way forward.
Sources: A Place for Mom 2025 Caregiver Burnout Statistics Survey (aplaceformom.com), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Caregiver Support Program — Grief and Loss guidance (caregiver.va.gov), Caregiver Action Network — Anticipatory Grief (caregiveraction.org), Ministry of Health and Welfare 2024 National Mental Health Knowledge and Attitude Survey (mohw.go.kr), Research on the relationship between caregiving stress, depression, and caregiving guilt among families caring for dementia patients (KCI, Korean Clinical Psychology Association journal), Korean Social Security Information Institute research on typology of family caregiver burden (kihasa.re.kr, 2024).
Note: This article was compiled by AI from the sources cited above. We strive for accuracy, but for decisions about your specific situation, please confirm the latest guidance from a professional or the relevant agency.