What Is the Bargaining Stage of Grief?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsFive Stages of GriefWhat Is the Bargaining Stage?CharacteristicsExamplesWhen Bargaining in Grief Becomes a ProblemCopingNext in The Stages of Grief GuideWhat to Know About the Depression Stage of Grief

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Five Stages of Grief

What Is the Bargaining Stage?

Characteristics

Examples

When Bargaining in Grief Becomes a Problem

Coping

Next in The Stages of Grief Guide

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Bargaining is a natural reaction to grief. Bargaining in grief involves making deals with yourself or God to help yourself feel better. It is one of the primary stages of grief and often occurs alongside other difficult emotions, including denial and anger.

If you’ve lost someone, you would probably be willing to give anything to bring them back. Alternatively, you may wonder whetherbeing a better personor doing something differently could have prevented the loss.

You may even experience these thoughts if you’ve lost something important to you, such as a business,a job, a friendship, a relationship, a physical ability, or a sense of control or independence.

You’re not alone if you feel this way. Many people experience bargaining during their grief process, which is a normal response to loss.

In the bargaining stage of grief, people tend to negotiate or make deals as a strategy to manage their pain, saysSabrina Romanoff, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and professor at Yeshiva University.

This article explores bargaining as one of the five stages of grief, discusses what bargaining may look like, and suggests some coping strategies that may be helpful.

What Are the Five Stages of Grief?

The theory offers us a way to conceptualize the grief process, says Dr. Romanoff. It helps us make sense of something difficult.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Dr. Kübler-Ross’s theory has helped change the face of medicine becausedeathwas a subject many physicians tended to avoid up until then.Dr. Kübler-Ross’s theory became well-known in academic circles and popular culture.

Contemporary Views

However, more recent research shows that the process of grieving may not necessarily follow a set pattern of specific reactions over time.People react to loss in different ways and grief can be messy.

Therefore, Dr. Romanoff explains that a more current interpretation of the theory is that:

What Is Complicated Grief?

What Is Bargaining in Grief?

Bargaining is one of the stages of grief, or one of the experiences you may have if you’re grieving a loss. In this stage, you may find yourself negotiating with yourself, with people around you, with fate, or with a higher power to try and mitigate or undo your loss.

Sabrina Romanoff, PsyDBargaining is a defense against the feelings of helplessness experienced after a loss. It happens when people struggle to accept the reality of the loss and the limits of their control over the situation.

Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD

Bargaining is a defense against the feelings of helplessness experienced after a loss. It happens when people struggle to accept the reality of the loss and the limits of their control over the situation.

Dr. Romanoff explains that bargaining-type thinking may apply to the past or the present:

Disenfranchised Grief: What It Means and How to Cope With It

Characteristics of the Bargaining Stage of Grief

These are some of the characteristics of the bargaining stage of grief:

Examples of Bargaining in Grief

These are some examples of the types of thoughts you may have during the bargaining stage of grief, according to Dr. Romanoff:

Tips for Coping With the Death of a Spouse

Bargaining is a normal and expected part of grief. However, it can become problematic when it leads to obsessive thinking, excessive rumination, and other feelings that create significant distress.

If you are experiencing symptoms that make it hard to cope and interfere with your ability to function in your everyday life, you may be experiencing what is known ascomplicated grieforprolonged grief disorder.

Complicated grief is a prolonged mourning that keeps you from moving forward and healing after a loss. It is characterized rumination and sorrow that is so intense that it makes it difficult to focus on anything else. Prolonged grief disorder affects about seven percent of bereaved people.

Coping With the Bargaining Stage of Grief

Dr. Romanoff shares some strategies that can help you cope with the bargaining stage of grief:

Normalize Bargaining in Grief

Bargaining is a way for people to hang on to hope, which is what many people need while they are grieving. Bargaining tends to decrease over time as acceptance of reality starts to sink in.

Give Yourself Time

With time, your pain will likely become more manageable, and the idea of accepting circumstancesoutside of your controlmay be more tolerable. For some people, however, grief remains extremely challenging even years after a loss.

If you’re not experiencing any relief, it’s advisable to talk to a doctor or mental health professional about your symptoms.

Avoid Ruminating Over These Thoughts

A good way to cope during this stage is to try to get perspective and emotional distance from these thoughts, instead of perseverating over them. It can be helpful to share these thoughts with a loved one who can help you rationalize them.

Write Down Your Thoughts and Feelings

It can be a good idea towrite downyour feelings, wishes, and bargains, and reflect on them so you can become more aware of your true feelings and motives for these thoughts, instead of getting caught up in them.

Shift Your Focus

People are best able to move on from this stage when they decide to shift their focus from what they cannotcontrolto everything they can, as they begin to make changes in their lives that are more productive for them to move forward.

It can even be helpful to start with small things you can control. For example, deep breathing can be beneficial in that it shifts your focus to a very basic thing you can control: your breath.

This relaxation strategy can also help reduce stress levels and anxiety, which can also support your well-being as you cope with grief.

Get Help If You Need It

If you find yourself caught in a spiral of guilt and blame, or if your grief is overpowering you to the extent that you cannot function even if weeks or months have passed since your loss, it can be helpful to seek treatment from amental health professional. There are alsosupport groups for griefthat you may find helpful.

What Is Grief Counseling?

A Word From Verywell

Grief can be a difficult and painful process, and you may find yourself wishing against all odds that there’s something you can do to make things better. With time however, you will be able to accept the loss and focus on the things that are within your power to control, so you can start tomove onwith your life.

What to Know About Bereavement Counseling and Therapy

10 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Grief.American Psychological Association.Stages of grief.Dictionary of Psychology.U.S. National Library of Medicine.Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.Corr CA.Should we incorporate the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in our current teaching and practice and, if so, how?Omega (Westport). 2021;83(4):706-728. doi:10.1177/0030222819865397Stroebe M, Schut H, Boerner K.Cautioning healthcare professionals.Omega (Westport). 2017;74(4):455-473. doi:10.1177/0030222817691870O’Connor MF.Grief: A brief history of research on how the body, mind, and brain adapt.Psychosom Med. 2019;81(8):731-738. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000000717American Psychological Association.Bargaining stage.Dictionary of Psychology.Counseling Center, University of Washington.The stages of grief.Shear MK.Grief and mourning gone awry: pathway and course of complicated grief.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2012;14(2):119-128. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.2/mshearZaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al.How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing.Front Hum Neurosci. 2018;12:353. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353

10 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Grief.American Psychological Association.Stages of grief.Dictionary of Psychology.U.S. National Library of Medicine.Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.Corr CA.Should we incorporate the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in our current teaching and practice and, if so, how?Omega (Westport). 2021;83(4):706-728. doi:10.1177/0030222819865397Stroebe M, Schut H, Boerner K.Cautioning healthcare professionals.Omega (Westport). 2017;74(4):455-473. doi:10.1177/0030222817691870O’Connor MF.Grief: A brief history of research on how the body, mind, and brain adapt.Psychosom Med. 2019;81(8):731-738. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000000717American Psychological Association.Bargaining stage.Dictionary of Psychology.Counseling Center, University of Washington.The stages of grief.Shear MK.Grief and mourning gone awry: pathway and course of complicated grief.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2012;14(2):119-128. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.2/mshearZaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al.How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing.Front Hum Neurosci. 2018;12:353. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Grief.American Psychological Association.Stages of grief.Dictionary of Psychology.U.S. National Library of Medicine.Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.Corr CA.Should we incorporate the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in our current teaching and practice and, if so, how?Omega (Westport). 2021;83(4):706-728. doi:10.1177/0030222819865397Stroebe M, Schut H, Boerner K.Cautioning healthcare professionals.Omega (Westport). 2017;74(4):455-473. doi:10.1177/0030222817691870O’Connor MF.Grief: A brief history of research on how the body, mind, and brain adapt.Psychosom Med. 2019;81(8):731-738. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000000717American Psychological Association.Bargaining stage.Dictionary of Psychology.Counseling Center, University of Washington.The stages of grief.Shear MK.Grief and mourning gone awry: pathway and course of complicated grief.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2012;14(2):119-128. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.2/mshearZaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al.How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing.Front Hum Neurosci. 2018;12:353. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Grief.

American Psychological Association.Stages of grief.Dictionary of Psychology.

U.S. National Library of Medicine.Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Corr CA.Should we incorporate the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in our current teaching and practice and, if so, how?Omega (Westport). 2021;83(4):706-728. doi:10.1177/0030222819865397

Stroebe M, Schut H, Boerner K.Cautioning healthcare professionals.Omega (Westport). 2017;74(4):455-473. doi:10.1177/0030222817691870

O’Connor MF.Grief: A brief history of research on how the body, mind, and brain adapt.Psychosom Med. 2019;81(8):731-738. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000000717

American Psychological Association.Bargaining stage.Dictionary of Psychology.

Counseling Center, University of Washington.The stages of grief.

Shear MK.Grief and mourning gone awry: pathway and course of complicated grief.Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2012;14(2):119-128. doi:10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.2/mshear

Zaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al.How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing.Front Hum Neurosci. 2018;12:353. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353

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