They are two different concepts and at the same time with multiple points in common Two ideas that are too often misunderstood and confused.
It’s about the sadness and the depression, two terms that today we propose to clarify and differentiate once and for all. These differences are not only limited to the emotional expression of both sensations, but also have to do with the psychological and psychophysiological causes that give rise to each of them.
There is a terrible confusion between both terms, sadness and depression. We are going to define both concepts and clarify recurring doubts about their similarities and differences.
The signs and symptoms that cause depression and sadness can be difficult to differentiate for an average person with little training on the subject. Luckily, mental health professionals know that, based on a good number of scientific investigations, there are certain signs and signals of different kinds that allow us to differentiate between these two states.
As a summary, we can explain up to six basic points to know when we are dealing with a sad person, or someone who suffers from a depressive disorder
1. Depression is a psychological disorder
Depression is a psychopathology in which, for different causes and reasons, the affected person manifests certain symptoms: sadness, apathy, anguish, feelings of hopelessness… That is, sadness is only one of the facets of depression.
While sadness is a temporary state of mind, People who suffer from depression are in a chronic situation of discomfort and unease To be diagnosed with depression, a person must have this type of symptomatology for at least six months.
2. Sadness is a relatively temporary state of mind
Another difference between sadness and depression has to do with temporality. The feeling of sadness is a relatively common psychological state, and which is not in itself an indicator of any mental disorder. It is, simply, the psychological reaction to something that has hurt us or to difficult circumstances from which we find it difficult to escape. The appearance of sadness, crying and crying is totally normal.
Sadness is one of the human emotions, and it is not bad nor should we be overly concerned if someone is sad for a few days. We can be sad when we lose a family member or a close friend, we can feel sadness when a plan is cut short and we can even feel this way for no apparent reason, perhaps due to a hormonal change or because we have woken up with a low mood.
Therefore, one of the differences between sadness and depression is that the former is to be expected, while few people develop depression throughout their lives.
3. Neuroimaging tests
As we see in the image below these lines, People with depression have a level of activation in various areas of the brain clearly inferior to healthy people. Through different neuroimaging techniques we can observe that the depressed brain is clearly differentiated from the healthy brain.
Furthermore, serotonin levels are much lower in people who suffer from depression, which influences a large number of mental processes. A sad person, on the other hand, does not experience such radical or lasting changes in their brain activation dynamics.
4. Apathy
Avolition is characterized by affecting people with depression, leaving them totally (or partially) unable to cope with daily life Going to work, shopping or doing business becomes an impossible mission for patients with this type of condition.
Somehow, people with depression feel that there is nothing worth moving toward, and they act on this idea. They lack initiative for the most basic things, from combing their hair to going outside.
Avolition and the different effects on the behavior of people with depression is not something they choose for themselves. The cause of these behavioral manifestations is found in the deterioration of the nervous and immune systems. Avolition can be common in both people who are sad and people with depression. The difference is that depressed people present this apathy for weeks and even months
5. When sadness goes too far
Sometimes, prolonged sadness can lead to a case of depression The progressive deterioration in the quality of life of the affected person can be noticed because they become unable to do their daily tasks, they appear affected (crying, isolation) frequently and they are very limited by their psychological state.
If this situation persists for several months, it is possible that the person is immersed in the development of a depressive condition. Thus, the difference between sadness and depression is, in part, quantitative. But There is also a qualitative difference: In depression many times you cannot identify the event or memory that causes the discomfort. That is something that does not happen when we are sad; In those situations, we feel that way because of a fact that, more or less, we know.
6. Sadness does not need therapy; depression, yeah
As we have seen, a common state of sadness is temporary and is not of major importance It is very likely that people going through a period of emotional pain do not require any specific professional support. Simply, the return to routine and the informal support of your friends, family and loved ones can be more than enough for life to get back on track and you can overcome this state of sadness.
However, Depression is a serious disorder that should be treated by a professional, because it very significantly affects the quality of life of the person. An accurate diagnosis and therapy focused on cognitive restructuring and, if necessary, psychotropic drugs, can decisively help the patient recover their psychological well-being and maintain it over time, avoiding relapses.
Another way to look at it is to consider that sadness is actually a useful emotion. It serves to add emotional tone to certain memories and, in this way, make wiser decisions in the future. The difference between depression and sadness would be, therefore, that the second is an alteration of the normal functioning of the brain, something that is not useful but rather represents a barrier for us. That is why it is considered that the symptoms of depressive disorders must be mitigated, and work is currently being done to go to the root of the problem and eliminate the disorder itself although at the moment we do not know how to do it and many years of research remain ahead.
7. Many of the causes of depression are biological
There is no psychopathology that has solely organic causes, and clinical depression is no exception. However, compared to sadness, it can be said that a good part of the causes of depression have to do with problems that occur in the body of the person who suffers from it; Specifically, it seems that certain forms of inflammation They predispose us to develop this disorder. Now, at the moment it is not clear whether medically intervening on inflammation allows us to completely “cure” this psychological alteration.
