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Sadness and Depression: Seeing the Difference, Knowing When to Get Help

 

Nobody welcomes feelings of sadness or dejection, but feeling down is sometimes part of life. Sadness is a normal, healthy emotion, and a natural response to loss or disappointment. Depression is a mental health issue, and a treatable illness.

While it may not seem to matter what you call it when you or a loved one is hurting, it is important to understand how these conditions are different.

When untreated, depression can raise the risk that more harmful behaviors will become established. Millions of people struggle with untreated depression each year. This also impacts friends, family and work relationships. The better we can recognize when someone needs help, the more we can reduce depression’s impact and support those we care about. Depression is treatable and people can recover to enjoy more positive, healthier lives.

The Difference Between Sadness and Depression

Sadness is a low mood of short duration. It’s a normal emotional response that everyone experiences after disappointment, hurt, or a personal loss.

When you feel a sense of sadness, you can usually trace the cause back to a particular life event. You may have lost something or someone you love, or regret a missed opportunity. While you feel this sadness, moments of laughter can co-exist. You don’t feel that your world is all or mostly negative.   Sadness eases at some point; it will pass.

Depression is life altering and more complicated. People experience it differently, and sadness is just one component.

Depression saps life’s energy, and wreaks havoc with a person’s hopes and desires to do good things and enjoy life. People with depression may want very much to feel better and be more fully present to those they love. But when fatigue, numbness, or apathy take hold, some may feel desperate and do destructive things to feel less bad.

People with depression may stop exercising, even when the body needs the natural stress fighting, mood lifting boost exercise offers. They may stop reaching out to their friends, or they may isolate themselves. They sometimes don’t get enough sleep or can get too much. They may binge-eat or do the complete opposite and may starve themselves, sometimes without even realizing it.

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