What is the difference between sadness and depression?
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Last Updated: 05/03/2022 at 12:32pm
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Jessica McDaniel, LPC, LCPC
Licensed Professional Counselor
I have been practicing cognitive behavioral psychotherapy since 2007 with a diverse group of adult clients with various diagnoses, all races, and socioeconomic classes.
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The basic difference is that sadness can go away . but depression sticks with you. You feel sad when for example something bad happens. You lost your journal ,you accidentally tear you favourite shirt. You can get over your sadness by simply buying a new journal or a new shirt . on the other hand depression is a black hole . it sucks you in and there is no way out. It mostly occurs to people due to the emptiness ,blankness,nothingness blackness of their future .
Sadness is a feeling of low mood and sympathy for ones self. You might want to cry or otherwise have some sort of catharsis to make yourself feel better. Depression isn't that as simple as that in my opinion. With deprresions, things might feel empty. Previously enjoyable activities suddenly feel like a chore. Food tastes of nothing and you might not want to eat. You might lose sleep, or conversly want to sleep forever. Lethargy takes over and you want to do nothing at all.
Sadness is part of human experience. When you are depressed, you loose part of the normal human experience: usually people are unable to experience good things as fun / comforting / amusing.
Being sad for to long makes you depressed.but sadness is like cold but depression is like frost bite..
Anonymous
December 24th, 2015 10:45pm
Sadness is where you are sad for one or two days, depression is where your continuously depressed all the time
Sadness doesn't last very long. It's natural for everyone to feel sad from time to time or feel sadness for a period of time after the loss of a family member or a break up or something else that happened in one's life which is serious and difficult, but the sadness eventually fades away. However, if the sadness stays and you keep feeling a deep level of sorrow and misery and perhaps anger and you have a low self-esteem or self-doubt or don't see a positive life ahead of you and can't manage to get yourself out of the dark hole, then it's become something much larger and stronger than sadness. Sadness is natural and okay. But depression is dangerous. And it's heartbreaking and if you haven't experienced depression, then you almost can't imagine how terrible it is.
Anonymous
December 25th, 2015 7:23pm
Sadness occurs once in a while and can be solved through talking to someone depression is when you are constantly upset sometimes even you don't know why.
Sadness, to me, is being upset over a certain reason or two - you are aware of what you are being upset over. Depression, this may occur unexpectedly and the reason is usually unknown, even to whoever is experiencing it. Whilst sadness could be recovered from in a short while, depression may take a while to move on from, and we may find difficulty in doing so. Depression is much more worse than sadness.
Sadness is like a temporany emotion, depression is a chronic state of underestimation and sadness; the last one it's harder to fight against.
Anonymous
December 25th, 2015 10:17pm
The difference between sadness and depression is that saddness only lasts for a little while and depression lasts for a long time untill you het over it.
Sadness last for a short er time amount and most of the time sadness is caused by something.. Depression kind if happens..
I'll try to provide an example. Lets see, the other day I watched a tv show I really liked, and a character I was rather fond of died. That made me sad. The emotion that I felt was triggered by an event. Sadness includes causality. Depression however, lacks that. You feel sad for -no- determinable reason,
Anonymous
December 26th, 2015 2:54am
Sadness is being sad for a short time, and depression is not only being sad, but also losing interest in things you used to enjoy, loss of appetite, change in sleeping patterns, etc.
Depression is the release of hormones and seritonon which causes the flood of endorphines which may make you feel one minute alright and the next not so well. Sadness is the feeling of the heart like grief or anger. It may take time to heal the wounds of the heart.
Anonymous
December 26th, 2015 8:35am
Sadness is usually more temporary, depression can last a very long time and is harder to get through.
Sadness is a mood that is temporary. Depression is a disorder, and it drains you of all you can do. Sadness may include crying, grief, lost love, abandonment, but you're mind has ways to heal it. Depression is far more serious, it doesn't lift after even a good day, week, you can be so depleted by it that it seems like you are not moving, and hardly keeping up. Depression needs medical help, even if you don't believe, or believe in medication. The most important difference between sadness and depression, is there is an element of possible suicidal urges linked with depression. It can sprial do
depression is a deeper more pointless feeling, feels like giving up. sadness is easier to pick yourself up from, often has a clearer reason too.
Sadness will generally last a short period of time whereas depression lasts for more than just a few weeks. Depression also involves a sense of impeding doom, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and hopelessness. It usually prolongs for a few months at a time and then stops but it almost always re-occurs throughout teh persons life
Anonymous
December 27th, 2015 10:32pm
Sadness can be temporary and usually there is a reason behind why one is sad. Depression on the other hand can occur randomly for no reason at all and it can stay for a very long time. The opposite of sadness is happiness. The opposite of depression is sustainability, how long can one remain content.
Sadness is something for the moment, it is generated by small things, while depression might absorb you completely and get you to suicidal thoughts. When you feel depressed you don't enjoy anything anymore and you stop doing things that usually made you really happy.
They are intervined like joy and hapiness. Sadness is like weather, it may change the next morning, depression is a season or even era.
Sadness is an emotion which comes and fades away again whereas depression is a constant state of lifelessness and feeling like everything is pushing you into the ground.
Sadness is sadness.. It lasts for an hour or a week maximum... Depression is sadness for life.. There is no light just a hope for suicide
Anonymous
December 30th, 2015 6:04pm
I think depression is like the worse version of sadness. Depression is an illness that you can't beat alone. Sadness needs time and love to go away.
Anonymous
December 30th, 2015 7:42pm
sadness is when you are in grief of losing something while depression is stessing over problems you overcome on your life
Sadness- sadness is feeling upset for a certain amount of time.
Depression- depression is feeling very upset for long periods of time.
Hope this helped! XO. - Maddie
One is just affecting you slightly, you get ove rit. Depression hurts emotionally, and Physically, and Mentally. Depression hurts you to where you don't even know who you are.
Anonymous
December 31st, 2015 6:30am
Depression is not always being sad. Sometimes it is an empty feeling, others it is that you feel you are not worth enough to care. Sadness is when your heart aches and your stomach feels hollow. Depression is on going sadness can be depressive but it to will pass.
Sadness is a clear feeling, a state of mind where you don't feel happy. Sadness is similar for everyone, just the reasons are different. Depression feels different to each individual experiencing it, caused my chemical imbalance and doesn't necessarily have a reason behind it.
sadness is when you cry about something for a night or so..and get over it..
depression is when you repeatedly thinks about it and when it pulls you down..
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