This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

How Depression Differs from Grief

Is it Depression or Grief? Recognizing the difference between grief and depression can often be difficult.

It may be difficult to distinguish between the two, especially with older adults. Since the loss of friends, family members and even spouses becomes more common as we age, grief or bereavement becomes more common as well.

When grieving, we may experience feelings of sadness, tearfulness, loss of appetite and sleep problems just like with depression.

However, with grief the sadness is intermittent not constant. The person will gradually progress through the sadness toward recovery.

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As for clinical depression, the sadness is constant, with feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and emptiness. The symptoms of depression are present nearly every day and persist for the majority of the day. Depression interferes with important aspects of daily life such as work, self-care and social functioning.

Ferszt and Leveillee explain the difference between grief and depresion in this way, "A grieving person usually stays connected to others, periodically experiences pleasure, and continues functioning as he rebuilds his life. With depression, a connection with others and the ability to experience even brief periods of pleasure are generally missing" (2009, 12-13).

Find out what's happening in Farmington-Farmington Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

----

Ferszt, G.G. & Leveillee, M., (2009). Telling the difference between grief and depression. Psych Review,5(3).[online]. Retrieved March, 23, 2012, from http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=861093.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Farmington-Farmington Hills