Grief is a normal, usually painful, emotional response to a loss. Unlike depression, normal grief usually goes away in a reasonable amount of time. Grief is often accompanied by psychological, physiologic and behavioral reactions to an irrevocable loss.

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Grief is an emotional reaction to a loss of some type. Mourning is the psychological process that individuals go through to cope with loss.

Grief can result from:

Typically, people go through three stages of grief and mourning after a loss. Most people go through these stages in order. However, it is not unusual for people to experience them in a different order or go through a stage more than once.

Stage one involves shock and disbelief and is characterized by:

Stage two involves preoccupation with the loss and is characterized by:

Stage three involves resolution and is characterized by:

Some people can experience and resolve grief quickly. Others grieve a significant loss for years. It is not abnormal for people who have lost a spouse or child to feel grief on and off for the rest of their lives. Cultural differences play a part in how people grieve, as well. Usually the length and intensity of a person's grief depends on the closeness of the relationship to the person who is lost. The grief and pain created by the loss of someone very close will probably never be completely absent. It is realistic to expect that in time, the intensity, duration and frequency of the painful feelings will lessen.

Grief and depression share many similar characteristics. These include:

There are, however, distinctions. Depression tends to be constant and long lasting. Grief, in contrast, is often described as coming in "waves" and then subsiding for a while. The shame and low self-esteem connected with depression are not present with grief. Finally, the complete sense of hopelessness that accompanies depression is often absent with grief.