Sadness Vs Depression

In western culture, there is a semi-understood difference between sadness and depression. Often, time and energy are spent attempting to separate the two ideas and contrast them with one another. However, sadness and depression are very hard to distinguish for the person suffering from one or the other because they share so many similar traits. In fact, some people are unable to get the mental health help they so desperately need because they are unable to recognize the seriousness of their depression versus the effects of sadness. So, despite their differences, sadness and depression are similar in that the person experiencing these effects feels deep grief, they face an inability to function, and painful thoughts dominate their lives. One …show more content…
The death of a loved one can leave a person unable to focus for a time, as they work through what the world will be like without their relative. Sadness is a feeling about an event that may affect mood throughout the day, but it is usually limited to the precipitating event. Eventually, the sadness loses its strength in the demand for focus in everyday life. Family, work, and faith can all help to heal sadness and move the sad person along to better days. Depression is different in its effects, however. Depression is an overwhelming inability to function, due to the severe physiological and neurological processes involved. Deficiencies in hormones the brain needs to stay healthy can result in poor physical health as the brain suffers, as well as poor physical health as the mental state of the sufferer causes them to cease caring for themselves. (4) (3) Depression results in lack of sleep, attendance issues at work, and lack of appropriate food consumption, among other issues. The problems with productivity, both in the personal and professional life of the sufferer, due to depression can have harmful effects on the sufferer, only serving to deepen the depression. With sadness, some of these same items to note are seen: sleep deprivation, lack of appetite, and problems staying focused at work. These problems shared by sadness are not nearly on the scale of severity as with depression, but they still …show more content…
Depression extends longer and deeper in reach and effect on the life of a person dealing with grief, and sadness similarly deals with the same effects, just in a shorter span of time. One can eventually get past sadness with some time, but depression sticks around for a while, and so the effects of deep grief, inabilities to function well, and the distraction of overwhelming thoughts can seem more severe than normal. As the mental health need for better clarity in the differences between sadness and depression grows, researchers and doctors must first start with the similarities. Only when the similarities of sadness and depression are understood well can the sad be comforted and the ill be