Is sadness depression? Or is sadness a symptom of depression?
In fact, sadness is a feeling and natural reaction when loss occurs, but what causes depression to be confused with sadness, the incorrect treatment of sadness may turn it into depression.
What is depression?
Depression is a mood disorder, accompanied by a sense of sadness and apathy for anything in life, depression controls feeling, thinking, and behavior too.
There are also physical symptoms of depression, and depression patients are often tired, and pain is scattered throughout the body.
Depression is more severe than the normal sadness , depression is a disease controlled by several factors and influences, and supported by neurotransmitters and hormones, it must be interfered to treat it .
How do I know I am suffering from sadness, not depression?
When some people suffer loss, such as the loss of a loved one, job, country, or place, they may only feel sad, and sometimes feel sad with depression too.
The distinction between sadness as an independant feeling and sadness as a symptom of “depression sadness” can be useful, so that the person can properly treat the symptoms and take the lead in treatment.
Sadness and depression can be distinguished in:
- Sadness is accompanied by waves of positive memories of the person who died or the missed thing, while depression is accompanied by a loss of motivation and attention for two consecutive weeks.
- Sadness does not affect self-confidence and self-esteem, and depression is accompanied by loss of self-confidence and, more often, self-esteem.
- Over time, sadness is decreasing, and over time depression is increasing unless treated.
- Sadness can be accompanied by anger, irritation, and the unacceptability of what caused sadness, ideas such as “to catch up with the deceased,” and hallucinations such as sensation of hearing or seeing things.
- Depression is accompanied by feelings of guilt, lake of value, confusion in speech, or slow talk , suicide thoughts, obsessed ideas, and delusions.
Stages of mourning
What are the normal stages of sadness (mourning)?
Sadness passes through five stages during his journey:
First: Denial.
Second: Anger.
Such anger is often logical (anger from the person responsible for the sad event) or illogical (such as anger from God).
Third: argue
It is a stage that contains many distorted ideas, such as (if I stayed with him, he wouldn’t be dead ).
Fourth: Extreme sadness
It is the first stage of accepting and recognizing what has happened, has a sense of loss, and increased pain waves because of the constant remembering of the missed person’s pros.
Fifth: Acceptance
A stage of calm and handover, and the initiation of normal life.
These stages vary from person to person, and every human being grieved differently and there is no right or wrong way to do so.
Coping strategies help to cope with sadness, and everyone must plan and use his or her own resilience plan in advance in time of sadness and crisis.
