2024-03-14
A subject that is close to my heart right now is how difficult it is to fight off depression when you are grieving the loss of someone you love.
When friends and family interact with us when we are depressed, they usually just want us to feel better. When we are grieving for someone close to us, others often don’t know what to say or do and sadly, this can often mean that they don’t contact us at all. Those who do may offer reassurance that ‘time’ will help us to heal; they may try to soften our blow with the idea that we should be relieved that our loved one is no longer suffering; attempts at helping us often leave us feeling that our grief is being dismissed.
The depression that affects us when we are grieving can be helpful. it slows down time and gives us the opportunity to absorb our grief and to take the readjustment that we are faced with at our own pace. While the world carries on as normal, we can detach from it and wrap ourselves in a kind of depression that almost protects us from having to meet the expectations of others until we feel ready to do so.
Grief is no doubt part of the process of healing and depression is one of the inevitable steps along the way.