For some widows, depression starts as a reaction to the loss of their spouse and the feeling of being trapped by grief. Loss is an unavoidable part of this life and it's an enormous struggle to sort through the grief and heal. One of the most critical facts is that there is a difference between those that are grieving and those that are in depression. Our thoughts concerning our husband's death are what affects our mood.  In those of us who get depressed, it's because our beliefs or interpretations of the event can make an already low mood even lower. The huge emotional upheaval that comes from experiencing loss is normal.  They signal to us that we are in distress and that we need to take care of ourselves so we can heal. What we have to watch out for is when sadness turns into permanent negative thinking that generates tension, aches, pains, fatique and lack of joy in life. When our moods feed more negative thinking, compounding our feelings of sadness than it's turned from unhappiness caused by grief into depression and it may require professional help.