Sigmund Freud was the first to write about how similar grief and depression are.2 Though they can look the same, one difference between them is that depression often seems to come out of nowhere, whereas grief is a natural response to a loss. Since the time of Freud, we have learned that depression and grief, even severe grief, can be distinguished. For example, depression tends to pervade every aspect of life. People who have depression feel that almost all facets of their life are awful, rather than feeling that it is just the loss they are struggling with.
