Grief Vs Depression - What Is The Difference?

Grief Vs Depression An Overview

Your emotional well-being takes a big hit when you suffer from a personal loss. In such cases, it is natural to feel depressed and low, with life often coming to a standstill altogether. Sometimes, you can get over this feeling in as little as a few weeks, but there is no outer time limit, and you may suffer for years on end. 

Grief is characterized by the following tell-tale signs:

• An identifiable loss
• Erratic fluctuations in your physical, emotional, and cognitive responses
• A pressing need for social support
• Feeling guilty for your loss
• Thoughts revolving around death, not related to depression
• Having your self-esteem intact

While depression can seem similar to grief, it is much more complex and intricate than the latter. At times, you can experience a combination of both grief and depression, resulting in difficulty distinguishing one from the other. In addition, while grief does reach a natural conclusion all by itself, depression is an ongoing emotion involving feelings of sadness, self-loathing, and even guilt. 

Depression is characterized by the following tell-tale signs:

• No identifiable loss
• Lack of pleasure or fulfillment in life
• Inability to function mentally, physically, or cognitively
• A pressing desire to be left alone
• Unresolved feelings pertaining to guilt, self-worth, and self-loathing

Grief Vs Depression And It's Causes

Both grief and depression tend to vary from person to person and are not alike for any two people. When it comes to depression, there isn’t always a single major trigger point that alters the state of your emotional and mental well-being. Instead, an amalgamation of genetics, lifestyle changes, and illness can be attributed to the cause of depression. 

Depression can be described as a severe mood and mental health disorder, one that lasts for at least two years and can stretch on for a person’s lifetime. Some contributing factors to clinical depression include past trauma that slowly builds steam and leads to full-blown depression. However, in many cases, depression can remain dormant for years on end and rear its ugly head at the most unexpected of times. 

Grief can be termed as a temporary response to a loss that one experiences and is mainly triggered by emotional, physical, and psychological reactions to immense pain. While the chemical reactions associated with grief are temporary in nature, the stages of grief can be experienced for a more prolonged period of time.

Devastating losses like losing a loved one, or even a pet, can cause immense grief. Other instances that can cause grief are divorce, loss of one’s home, or separation from a close family member.

Grief Vs Depression And It's Symptoms

In most cases, differentiating between grief and depression can prove to be a hassle, as symptoms associated with both can often overlap. 

Grief is a knee-jerk reaction to an immediate loss, and over time, the symptoms associated with grief tend to fizzle out. However, when a person suffers from a significant personal setback, grief can cause changes in their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive outlook for anywhere between six to twelve months. This includes a loss of appetite and uncontrollable spells of sobbing. Apart from this, a grieving person can also experience irritability, anger, inability to concentrate, insomnia, and physical ailments.

When a person is suffering from depression, they too will feel all of the above, but in an exponentially magnified manner. When depressed, sadness can take the form of suicidal thoughts and, if left untreated, can prove to be a life-threatening situation. 

Getting Help

The only silver lining when it comes to grief is that it tends to fizzle out naturally after a point. In many cases, loved ones may not understand how best to help the grieving person and may leave them alone to seek solace by themselves. However, if you feel that the grief is getting too much to handle, you can always opt to enlist the services of a grief counselor or a therapist. These professionals will be able to help you narrow down the exact reasons for your grief and help figure out ways to abate the same.

When it comes to clinical depression, getting professional help is an absolute necessity. Depression causes chemical imbalances in your brain, and the only way this can be kept in control is through regular anti-depressant medication. In addition to this, cognitive behavioral therapy is also beneficial to those suffering from clinical depression.