The following definitions are taken from The Doubleday Dictionary For Home, School and Office, Sidney I. Landau, Editor in Chief; Ronald J. Bogus, Managing Editor; DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.; Garden City, New York: 1975.
Depressed: adj. 1. Sad; dejected. 2. Pressed down. 3. Flattened from above; sunk below the surface. 4. Reduced in amount, degree, value,etc.
Syn. 1. downcast, low, blue, downhearted, forlorn, desolate.
Grief: n. 1. Intense sorrow or mental suffering resulting from loss, affliction, regret, etc. 2. A cause of such sorrow
Syn. 1. affliction, agony, distress, sadness, tribulation, trouble, woe.
All of my life, from early childhood and on into adulthood, I have carried around a deep sadness in my heart. When I started working on my incest issues in 12-Step programs and in counseling, I noticed that a lot of my friends were on antidepressants. I wasn't sure if that was what I needed or not so I asked a friend who she got her pills from. I made an appointment with her psychiatrist for the next week.
The psychiatrist asked me why I was visiting him that day. I told him that I was an incest survivor and I noticed that all of my friends were on something for depression and I wanted to know if I was depressed. We talked for awhile. He asked questions and I talked.
Thank God that I went to the doctor that I did that day. He told me that I wasn't in a depression, that I was grieving what had happened to me as a child and that grief was a normal process for what I had experienced as a child growing up with incest and alcoholism in my family. He sent me home and told me to keep doing the work that I was doing on myself. That was about 15 years ago. I am still doing the work on myself that needs to be done as it comes up. I am back to a cycle of grieving. Am I depressed? No, I am grieving which is normal for what I have been through.
Patricia
Depressed: adj. 1. Sad; dejected. 2. Pressed down. 3. Flattened from above; sunk below the surface. 4. Reduced in amount, degree, value,etc.
Syn. 1. downcast, low, blue, downhearted, forlorn, desolate.
Grief: n. 1. Intense sorrow or mental suffering resulting from loss, affliction, regret, etc. 2. A cause of such sorrow
Syn. 1. affliction, agony, distress, sadness, tribulation, trouble, woe.
All of my life, from early childhood and on into adulthood, I have carried around a deep sadness in my heart. When I started working on my incest issues in 12-Step programs and in counseling, I noticed that a lot of my friends were on antidepressants. I wasn't sure if that was what I needed or not so I asked a friend who she got her pills from. I made an appointment with her psychiatrist for the next week.
The psychiatrist asked me why I was visiting him that day. I told him that I was an incest survivor and I noticed that all of my friends were on something for depression and I wanted to know if I was depressed. We talked for awhile. He asked questions and I talked.
Thank God that I went to the doctor that I did that day. He told me that I wasn't in a depression, that I was grieving what had happened to me as a child and that grief was a normal process for what I had experienced as a child growing up with incest and alcoholism in my family. He sent me home and told me to keep doing the work that I was doing on myself. That was about 15 years ago. I am still doing the work on myself that needs to be done as it comes up. I am back to a cycle of grieving. Am I depressed? No, I am grieving which is normal for what I have been through.
Patricia
