Originally Posted by
Gigabitch 
Question for Mish: how does doing "work" in therapy affect the depression cycle? It seems like rumination and processing trauma are quite similar, actually.
From what I understand there is a similarity between them. As in it's a thought process. But the main difference seems that work related though process is a productive one; I.e. you are generating ideas and using problem solving skills to get tasks out of the way or you repeat manual labour to get an "x quota" finished. If you examine rumination, it's starkly unproductive. It doesn't have a beginning or a conclusion. It's a loop that keeps on going on and on and on and on. Because mostly when you ruminate, you don't use your thought process with an intent of finding a solution, you use your thought process with intent to mull over a worrying thought and it's unknown consequences. Because the consequences are unknown, the mind when ruminating tends to process it as a threat and thus examines all the risks only with no end point. One set of risks, bring forth another set of risks (real or imagined) until you end up back where you started and start mulling over the entire process all over again. (True story: when I told my ex she needs to get out of this process, she said the only way she can do that is if I knock her out in some way).
So the difference between the two that I can tell you is "work thought process" = productive, "rumination" = unproductive loop without a conclusion.
I read also that there are similarities between "Depression" and "Grief". They sometimes arouse similar symptoms. With major difference that eventually from grief you recover after you move on. But depression stays there (because the external circumstances that cause it don't change). I like to think that when you grieve, you grieve over a loss of someone, when you are depressed you grieve over a loss of self. Looking at depression in this way. As a normal, natural part of human psyche is refreshing, in a way that you realize that it's not a biological thing going haywire in your body. It's a natural process, which for one reason or another doesn't seem to end like it's suppose to.