The Disparity between Sadness and Depression

Most of the time, sadness and depression are termed as one. Some people believe that sadness indicates that you have a disorder called depression. Others believe that sadness is just a normal occurrence and is way too different from depression. What is really sadness and how did it become the number one symptom of depression? Is there any way we can eliminate this feeling from our lives? Let us further tackle the discrepancy between sadness and depression.

Sadness is described by the dictionary as expressive of grief or unhappiness. Depression is coined as a medical condition in which there is an extreme form of sadness and is chronic in duration. The difference between the two is that, sadness is likely a normal experience from time to time. However, if unhappiness persists for weeks or months, then it becomes the disorder we call depression.

Why Am I Sad?

There are a number of factors which can trigger this feeling and it differs from person to person. Whether you are a child or an adult, you experience sadness from time to time. Some of the causes of sadness are: disappointments in life, loss of something essential to one's life, and empathy to another person. Although people feel this naturally once in a while, sadness becomes threatening if the feeling of grief doesn't go away. It can consume you and your activities and can even trigger clinical depression.

People must always put in mind that sadness is a natural occurrence, and should be treated passively. People must not take it in too deeply because it may already lead to a disorder. Once you feel sad, try boosting up yourself and you will see how the burdensome blanket is being slowly lifted off of your shoulders.

Sadness and Depression: The Becoming of a Problem

Sadness becomes a problem when it fully consumes a person. If the feeling of grief lasts for a very long period of time, and if it makes a person stray away from the good things in life, then we can call it a problem. Sadness and depression should normally be separated because sadness is only a temporary feeling while depression can last a lifetime.

If these signs and symptoms appear, then sadness and depression can positively be called a disorder. Numbness of the body, feelings of worthlessness, troubling of your mind, feelings of being unloved and unaccepted, loss of appetite, and sudden weight gain or loss are only amongst the many symptoms of both sadness and depression. The longer these feelings persist, the more we can categorize it as a disorder.