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What is the difference between sadness and depression?

191 Answers
Last Updated: 05/03/2022 at 12:32pm
1 Tip to Feel Better
United States
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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.

Top Rated Answers
Anonymous
September 20th, 2016 9:46pm
Sadness is a emotion. We can be sad for days or months but its something that can end just by being replaced with another emotion. Its different with depression. Depression is actually considered a mental desease. If you believe that youre depressed, please dont be afraid or ashamed of talking with your friends and family about it, or with one of our members. We are here to support.
Smurfstomper
October 4th, 2016 5:59pm
Sadness is a pain related to being sorrow, feeling alone and helpless, which results from negative outcomes. . .Sadness can be viewed as a temporary lowering of mood. Depression is a state of low mood. . .Depressed people may feel, anxious, empty, hopeless, worried, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, hurt, or restless for long periods. They may lose interest in activities that once were pleasurable, experience loss of appetite or overeating, have problems concentrating, remembering details, or making decisions, and may contemplate or attempt suicide. Insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, loss of energy, or aches, pains, or digestive problems that are resistant to treatment may also be present. What they don’t have in common is what defines sadness and depression, just as what you add to milk, eggs and butter in the mixing bowl will turn out to be cookies or an omelette.
Anonymous
April 18th, 2017 8:40am
Sadness often is for a shorter time. It's a part of depression. But depression is more than sadness. Depression can be feeling numb, emotionless or loneliness. Depression can often take a longer amount of time.
Anonymous
June 13th, 2017 2:33pm
Sadness is a feeling and usually a short time span as depression is a chemical imbalance and can last for a long period of time
Anonymous
January 15th, 2018 10:08pm
Sadness is short-term and usually goes away within a short period of time. Depression on the other hand lasts longer and has a massive impact on your daily life
Anonymous
April 24th, 2018 3:50pm
According to me, sadness is just the emotional feeling about something, it effects only mentally whereas depression can effect both mentally and physically. You feel the exhaustion when depressed. Some times sadness could be the beginning of depression.
SupportSnake0711
October 9th, 2018 1:03pm
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.
peacefullistener22
May 20th, 2019 9:07pm
The difference between sadness and depression is the severity of the symptoms and the length of this emotion. Depression is a continuous low mood for 2 weeks whereas sadness comes when something has happened in most cases and often doesn't last for this long. Depression is often accompanied with no interest in other activities and feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness and in some cases suicidal thoughts. If you feel you may have depression instead of Sadness then reaching out to someone who can help you can be so beneficial. I wish you the best of luck in life and whatever you may be going through.
FriendlyNeighbourhoodlistener
May 11th, 2020 6:00pm
Sadness is a temporary emotion, while depression is a feeling that persists for a longer period of time and gets in the way of living your life. Sadness is an emotion and depression is more complicated than that, because it is a deeper sense of hopelessness, but learning to cope with depression isn’t impossible. Everyone experiences both throughout their lives and it is important to distinguish between the two. If you are feeling sad or depressed talk to someone. Talking to someone can help and both feelings are valid. Overall, sadness is less complex, yet should still be acknowledged and coping mechanisms for both are available.
Anonymous
January 24th, 2022 5:40pm
Sadness is about having negative emotions that come from the dissonance of our expectations and our perception of what we have around. Depending on one's awareness degree and needs, we can be sad for not achieving a pretty material goal or feel a more profound sadness, coming from the awareness of the worst part of the life we experience. In any case, sadness is always about living a negative emotion or set of emotions: but you still recognise what you stand for and you own your life choices at an acceptable degree. Depression comes in when sadness overtake and overwhelm you, you don't see any reason for pursuing any form of happiness and you stop acting and owning your life
Dalladi
May 3rd, 2022 12:32pm
The difference between sadness and depression is: Sadness is a feeling due to circumstance. Depression an ongoing condition that persists for two weeks or more. Say your dog dies. You will be sad of course! Probably crying and chocolate will ensue. Your heart breaks. You lean on friends or family during this time or things that nurture you. Yet you’re still able to enjoy things like food, sleep and activities. Your other aspects aren’t clouded over by a persistent toxic cloud. Depression is like the moment of sadness twisted into a never ending story. The sadness rolls like a snowball down a hill, picking up more and more sadness.