Coping with Amputation: Is it Grief or Depression?

Normal Grief

• You are able to respond to comfort and support
• You are often openly angry
• You can relate your depressed feelings to your experience of loss
• You can still experience moments of enjoyment in life
• You may have physical complaints that come and go
• You might express guilt over some aspect of the amputation
• These feelings sometimes affect your self-esteem

Clinical Depression

• You cannot accept comfort or support
• You are irritable and may complain but do not directly express anger
• You do not relate experiences to a particular life event
• You have a sense of doom that overshadows your days
• You have physical complaints most or all of the time
• You feel guilty about most things much of the time
• Your self-esteem is low most of the time