What is the Difference Between Grief & Depression
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Top level
Community Health
Services
Palliative Care
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Author: Admin
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Publishing date: 10 January 2008 1:38pm
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Tom Golden, author and psychotherapist says:
I like to think of them (grief and depression) as being very different processes. Grief is our unique and natural response to loss, while depression is many times a web of negative self-thoughts....
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When we are depressed, we are in some way thinking that we are a terrible person. The thoughts range from 'I could never do that' to 'I have committed the unpardonable sin'. Depression is a deflated state of mind that we tend to act out. By this, I mean that our behaviour will follow our thoughts. If we think we are the worst person in the world then our actions will follow suit. Grief, on the other hand, is the ability to stand in our own tension arising from a loss. It is the natural response to a normal life experience. Many times when a depressed person begins to feel what is inside, not the negative thought processes but the feelings within, they are starting to heal themselves. The distinction can get a bit complicated but the general rule is that grief is related to the acknowledgement, honouring, and often expression of feeling connected to a loss, and dpression is a form of pathological negtive thinking.
Tom Golden 1996 Swallowed by a Snake: The gift of the masculine side of healing Golden Healing Publishing
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