Am I Sad Or Depressed? 7 Tips To Know What To Do When You Are Sad
Can I be sad without being depressed? Is depression the same as sadness? Discover what sadness really is, what it gives us and how to overcome it in a healthy way.
Many people flee the sadness and the feeling of being sad, in fact the vast majority of us try to banish this emotion from our lives. We don’t want sadness even in paint and we try to keep it away from us as much as we can. It may seem like a healthy thing to do, but we forget a small detail: sadness is a basic emotion. We cannot escape from it because we need it to live. Thanks to the sad things that happen to us in life, we can value what we don’t want and it warns us about the things we must change.
A good one definition of sadness It is the one that understands it as a universal basic emotion that all people experience. When you are sad, this is a result of the loss of someone or something important to you. In this way, a sad person varies greatly the causes due to their experiences and the cultural reasons for the loss.
Even though the sadness and its meaning It is considered a negative emotion, when people are sad it fulfills a very relevant function and role in signaling what is wrong in our lives. Therefore sadness helps us reveal what we do not want in our lives and therefore, what we should really fight for.
understand the sadness As an emotion, it is essential to understand ourselves. That is why seeing people crying or sad people should not be a taboo or be a reason for shame in the eyes of others. The sad face gives us very relevant information to build the best path in our life.
What to do when you are sad?
Many times we banish sadness from our lives, and in doing so, we do not allow it to flow or express why it is there. Therefore, as we do not pay attention to it, it becomes larger or more present, it is magnified so that you can attend to it. When a sadness image comes to our minds, we should not ignore it or try to repress it, but rather understand why it arises in those moments.
So, we must listen to our emotions instead of hiding them or trying to replace them. This will help us understand its function and therefore be able to develop it. Having said that, I am going to differentiate grief from depression, because although they may seem the same, they are not the same at all.
When you are sad it is vital that you examine yourself and accept this emotion. The sadness It does not exist without a reason, therefore if it appears it is because your body is revealing to you that there is something that may be wrong with you and that you must change.
What are the differences between sadness and depression?
It is important to differentiate emotion from depression sadness In many cases, when a person begins to express that ‘I just want to cry and disappear‘ and he does it constantly, it is very likely that he is going through depression. Even so, it can also be a deep sadness that comes from a bad situation. In order to differentiate it, psychologists highlight the following.
Sadness is an emotion: The sadness It is an emotional state that we should not avoid (as I said previously) but what we do have to avoid is for this sadness to completely invade us (depression). We can all have a sad moment, day or season. The problem is when a deep sadness takes over us and nullifies us. When there are no moments of joy and it only turns black, we are talking about depression, which is a psychological problem.
It is normal to be sad during a bad experience: It is normal be sad when you have experienced a loss or a change that causes you discomfort. The problem is when this discomfort prevents you from being yourself, you lose interest in everything you used to like and you feel too lazy to do anything. In depression, apathy appears, a vicious circle that is difficult to break, since it is fed by guilt for doing nothing, for not being who you want to be. That makes you more depressed and therefore makes it harder for you to do things. On the other hand, when you are sad, the emotion is fleeting.
Sadness is temporary: A sad person You may have moments of disconnection or joy, while when you are depressed, the predominant emotion is sadness and you cannot get out of it no matter how hard you try.
It is not accompanied by negative messages towards oneself: In depression there are usually associated emotions such as loneliness, emptiness, frustration and guilt. Self-destructive messages such as: “You are a worthless girl“, “you are worthless“, “look what you’ve become“and there may be thoughts of suicide when not finding meaning in life or seeing it as a constant struggle. In sadness emotion All this does not happen, the person is perfectly capable of differentiating his abilities and who he is. It is a temporary state and therefore such a great generalization is not perceived.
Sadness has a reason: Depression can appear without an apparent cause (or so it may seem, because the truth is that every symptom has its reason), it appears gradually and we realize when we are already very sunk. The sadness It is usually associated with some change in some aspect of the person’s life: loss of a loved one, socio-cultural or economic changes, loss of job, etc., it is understood, it can be sudden and has a reason.
Feeling sad is completely normal, although sometimes we don’t understand where this feeling comes from. Despite this, when you you feel sad It is usually related to painful memories or situations that we may have blocked or have not allowed ourselves to face. People can feel sad for many reasons: from a bad day to small unresolved conflicts.
When you are sad, it is normal for you to ask yourself the reason for this feeling, but this emotion has its function and we must accept it and understand the reason behind it. On the other hand, when you feel bad It is routinely essential to discover the reason for these negative emotions.
Am I emotionally unwell or is it depression?
Sometimes people may not realize that they have a depressive disorder. The reason is that we usually have a very general view of this disorder. Mainly, we can detect depression by taking into account the following:
You have been feeling sad for a long time: If you have been depressed for a long time, you may not realize that you have a mental disorder. This can occur when people have experienced depression since they were very young.
You don’t feel very sad: because not you feel very sad, you may think that you are not facing a depressive disorder. In reality, depression may not involve a feeling of deep sadness. On the other hand, you may experience fatigue, low energy, lack of joy, etc. This is because depression can develop gradually over a long period of time.
You think they will judge you: If the people around you believe that depression is something you can cope with without complaining, you may not seek help so as not to feel ‘weak’. This is a belief that you should not tolerate, since depression is a disorder that must be treated.
If you believe that your sadness is part of a depressive disorder, it is important that you seek help from a mental health professional.
How to overcome sadness?
If you feel sad lately, there are some tips you can take into account to deal with this situation. You must think that these sad states and pain are only a reflection that something is not going as you would like. In these cases, it is essential to keep the following in mind.
Listen to the emotion: feel the sadness as an emotion, that will allow you to elaborate it. Understand it as an analogy of digestion. Listening to the emotion is chewing it, by chewing you get digestion going and if you chew well this digestion will be faster. Therefore, listening to sadness will make you digest it more easily.
Don’t let yourself be carried away by sadness: Alright listen to the sadness, but once this work is done and elaborated, we must look for change. Do things that make you feel good, disconnect from grief and increase your positive moments.
Take control of your internal dialogue: If self-destructive thoughts begin to appear such as: “I’m worthless“, “I am useless“, try to see what is true in that. Surely there is something you are worth, you will do something well in this life, it is impossible that you do not know how to do anything. Look for the exceptions to such generalizing thoughts and you will see the key to fight sadness We all have weaknesses and sadness can highlight what we want to work on.
Make yourself a routine: If you see that you are stopping doing things you liked, force yourself to do them. Normally the tendency is to stop doing them because you don’t feel like it. That is the apathy that is beginning to make an appearance. Continue with your routine, that will help you not fall into depression. One of the keys to overcoming sadness and its meaning It is precisely trying to continue with a specific routine that makes you feel useful both for yourself and for others.
Look for the positive side of things: The tendency is to become a negative and pessimistic person. He tries to look for the positive side in everything, looks for the glass half full. Sometimes the emotion of sadness comes because negative thoughts take control of our mind. To avoid this, start by rationalizing everything negative that comes to mind: Are these thoughts really useful to you?
Set goals: Stop complaining and change everything you don’t like. Get to work to have the life you want to lead. Goals are fundamental to leave sadness behind Therefore, you must think about what you really want in your life and fight to get there.
Think about why you are sad: As we have said people are sad not for no reason, but to detect that something is wrong in their lives. For this reason, you should try to practice introspection and see what is wrong in your life.
