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Sadness and depression are both things that many people in this world face but that doesn’t mean they are the same thing. Depression and sadness overall are two very different things that we need to be able to tell apart.

Sadness is an emotion that everyone feels, it is an emotional pain of sorts that can be quite hard to deal with but it’s not the same thing as depression. Sure, some people with depression might also feel sad depending on their situation but that’s not always the case. Depression is a mental health condition that can be very serious. It affects how a person thinks, feels, and acts. 

Some people with depression may face serious feelings of sadness but most would not describe it as that. Most refer to it more-so as feeling numb, unable to truly feel anything at all. While it is treatable, it in many cases can leave some unable to function properly depending on the severity. It has both mental and physical symptoms and is quite hard to deal with.

In regards to this difference Psychology Today wrote as follows:

Sadness is a normal human emotion. We’ve all experienced it and we all will again. Sadness is usually triggered by a difficult, hurtful, challenging, or disappointing event, experience, or situation. In other words, we tend to feel sad about something. This also means that when that something changes when our emotional hurt fades when we’ve adjusted or gotten over the loss or disappointment, our sadness remits.

Depression is an abnormal emotional state, a mental illness that affects our thinking, emotions, perceptions, and behaviors in pervasive and chronic ways. When we’re depressed we feel sad about everything. Depression does not necessarily require a difficult event or situation, a loss, or a change of circumstance as a trigger. In fact, it often occurs in the absence of any such triggers. People’s lives on paper might be totally fine—they would even admit this is true—and yet they still feel horrible.

Depression colors all aspects of our lives, making everything less enjoyable, less interesting, less important, less lovable, and less worthwhile. Depression saps our energy, motivation, and ability to experience joy, pleasure, excitement, anticipation, satisfaction, connection, and meaning. All your thresholds tend to be lower. You’re more impatient, quicker to anger and get frustrated, quicker to break down, and it takes you longer to bounce back from everything.

While that in itself might be hard to grasp for those who do not face depression as a whole, it is quite clear to those who know all too well what depression is and how it feels. These two things should not be considered interchangeable because they’re simply not. As someone who has faced depression and still does sometimes, I would never compare it to being sad. It’s more-so like being as irritable as possible all the while lacking any motivation to even do so much as roll over in bed.

For more information on this topic please check out the video below. How do you feel about all of this and were you aware of the difference before reading this? Being more educated on things like this will help us as a society to better understand one another.

Sources:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201510/the-important-difference-between-sadness-and-depression

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sadness