Grief is a painful and, oftentimes, overwhelming response to loss. It is a natural, healthy response to being separated from someone you love. In death or divorce, where the loss is permanent, you can feel as if you have lost a part of yourself. There is no healthy way of successfully avoiding the deep, sharp hurt you feel. Health come in the expression of your true feelings. So welcome those healing tears you feel welling up inside of you, even though you might be afraid that you will never stop crying. The good news is that grief is time limited.
         Depression is usually avoidable. It is a duller, heavier feeling then grief. Depression is spread out over a longer period of time. It can occur with or without a real loss in your life. Depression can last a lifetime. The good news about depression is that it is treatable and preventable.
         There are two common causes of depression associated with grief. One is the result of dysfunctional thinking patterns. For instance, if someone dies and you tell yourself, "I will never be happy again," you are compounding the fresh pain of grief by projecting it into the future. You are engaging in negative fortunetelling. You are also "generalizing" by saying, "Since I am unhappy now, I will always be unhappy."
         Other causes of depression are poor diet, physical illness and a congenital predisposition to depression. All of these are medically treatable.