Grief, depression and mourning

There is a difference to take into account in these concepts; Let's start with the definitions.

Grief is a process in situations of profound change , unexpected or planned emotional movements and/or loss of a loved one, death. In addition, grief has a beginning and an end process, it goes through a phase of depression in one of its stages, which is overcome in the next phase, giving space to acceptance.

Depression and clinical melancholy is that diagnosis that needs to be addressed beyond the therapeutic word when there are risks or suicidal ideation that endangers the patient's life.

The mourners are those people who drag in their day to day some situation that they interpret as negative , obtaining a victimizing posture that accompanies them in their daily dynamics.

How can we think the difference between these concepts, which are socially observed permanently?

Distinguishing between depression, bereavement and mourning

The difference to highlight is the position of the subject in such situations and the time spent in them.

Each situation that we go through in life that modifies our habitual state by choice or by surprise, where we must leave something behind to advance to something new, to what is different, requires a process of assimilation and accommodation, being necessary to hurt what is left behind or that is lost Perhaps the most relevant grief is the loss of a loved one, death .

Each duel goes through five stages, according to the investigations of the Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler Ross, after a certain time and having gone through them, little by little the contact with life is resumed, housing in the being the beautiful memory of what was lost.

The stages: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance

The pain goes through the subject completely in moments of loss and profound changes , the disconnection with reality and isolation are frequently observed in a duel.

1. Denial

Denial is associated with that defense mechanism where things cannot be seen as they could happen, denying what happened in order to continue, the state of shock is present at this time.

2. Ira

Anger is the anger associated with frustrations and feelings of helplessness for not having been able to modify the consequences of such a loss.

3. Negotiation

The negotiation is trying psychically and with hope to return to the life you had before the loss , searching for and repeating phrases such as: if you had performed such an action... If you had not gone... Staying in those capsules for a certain time.

4. Depression

Depression, all the feelings of sadness, uncertainty, unease, emptiness , loneliness and disconnection from reality appear. At this stage you can visualize more clearly what happened and with great pain you move on to the stage of acceptance.

5. Acceptance

This stage begins to be able to look at reality in another way , from the front, changes the subjective position and looking without veils in the eyes begins to be part of reality. With this process, the beautiful memory of what was lost is allowed to settle.

What is the difference between grief and depression?

On some occasions and with certain psychic characteristics pre-established by structure in the person, when going through the stages of mourning, the subject is anchored in the depressive phase, settling there to give entity and strength to such diagnosis.

Clinical depression sets in, with the disconnection from reality being deeper and more permanent , losing daily dynamics, such as social contacts, concentration difficulties, insomnia, anguish, apathy, apathy with significant reluctance.

In these cases, the patient must be accompanied in an interdisciplinary manner with a specialist in the area of ​​psychiatry, not being enough the word with the therapeutic treatment. The psychopharmaceutical is surely supplied by the treating professional, this being necessary to generate the connection again and resume speaking. Thus, and in a joint and interdisciplinary manner, the mental health of the patient is addressed.

In duels in the face of the loss of loved ones, in the face of death, the representations that had been projected with that person are of great suffering , and the first round of the annual clock is the most complex to navigate. The empty chair, the first birthday in absence, such a party and the emptiness of someone who is not there, are representations that remain hollow and without space.

The mourning patient is the one who is taken by some initial situation that he interpreted as negative, sad or devastating and makes of that sensation or interpretation a permanent company. He walks through life heavily in everything he does, although he continues with his activities, he does so from a victimizing, forced, sad posture.

They are those patients with repeated speeches, in which you hear: Everything goes wrong for me... I'm not lucky... Nobody loves me... These speeches are amalgamated without registering what was expressed, without asking, or looking into how get out of there .

How to help in each of these cases?

In the case of grief, therapeutic treatment, the family and social support network are supportive factors for the person who suffers it, putting that pain and sadness into words in order to go through it and elaborate it, waiting and accompanying internal times of each patient, listening in a passive and alert position to try that the stages can go by and not stay inside the being.

In the case of clinical depression, in addition to what is mentioned in the previous paragraph, as we have already said, we must make a referral to a psychiatric interconsultation to be evaluated for the possibility of prescribing the appropriate psychotropic drug, thus helping and preventing the act with ideations that manifest.

In the case of patients with mourning characteristics, we work from the therapeutic position trying to take the patient to the position of the desiring subject , so that they can consider what their desire is and be able to generate enthusiasm and empathy with life from that place.

It should be remembered that each patient is unique , with a particular life story that must be taken into account when approaching the different treatments.

Observing, accompanying and respecting the internal and own times in each case. Accompanying these processes is a beautiful therapeutic task.