Why it is important to distinguish between having depression and being sad

In an age where perfectly normal human experiences are unfortunately routinely pathologized, there are many people who confuse sadness with depression.

Some of these people consider that these types of “labels” related to the world of mental health are just that, labels, and for this reason, it is not worth stopping to think much about whether it is convenient to call in one way or another how we we feel.

However, in the field of psychology and psychiatry, efforts are made to conceptually delimit mental and behavioral processes, and this is clearly seen when it comes to drawing a line between mood disorders like depression and emotions like sadness. Let's see why it is important to know these kinds of differences.

• Related article: "5 signs of poor mental health that you should not overlook"

Distinguishing between a disorder and an emotion

What is depression? Major depression is a psychological disorder, that is, it appears in the diagnostic manuals used in the world of mental health., such as the DSM-5 (officially labeled “major depressive disorder”). In fact, it is one of the most common mental illnesses, being present in approximately 2% of the world's population. In addition, it is estimated that between 7 and 22% of people will develop this alteration at some point in their lives.

But the depression It is not only a very widespread psychopathology, but it is also one of the most dangerous. Although it does not degenerate in all cases into severe major depression, if it develops to become very intense, it causes the person who suffers from it to experience suicidal ideation habitually, fantasizing about taking his own life and, on many occasions, attempting suicide.

That is why more and more mental health awareness campaigns are created so that when detecting the first symptoms, people go to therapy as soon as possible so that through professional support, they can overcome the disorder and return to having an adequate quality of life.

And what is sadness? It is, as I said before, a human emotion. This means, among other things, that it is present in the lives of all people without psychological alterations, and that in fact, the inability to feel it is a signal that it is necessary to carry out a medical examination and/or neuropsychological

It is true that normally when we are sad we would prefer not to be because it is an unpleasant experience, but if we broaden the focus we realize that this element of our emotional side has functions important. In fact, all the basic emotions we feel are there for a reason, to the point that we can find them in practically all species of mammals. Sadness motivates us to repeat the actions that take us away from it and avoid those that lead us to this emotion.

• You may be interested: "The 8 types of emotions (classification and description)"

The importance of differentiating between sadness and depression

Now that we have seen in broad strokes what depression and sadness are, we can understand why it is essential to distinguish between the two. Depression, as a mental health problem, is an aspect that requires professional support through a treatment or combination of treatments. However, sadness is not even a problem in itself; in any case, it is a consequence of a problem that we are going through, and possibly it is not even the most important.

Furthermore, while depression is a sign that something is wrong in our lives, sadness is part of normality, the fact of living and exposing ourselves to different situations when interacting with the world and with the rest. No one should consider never being sad, but they should invest efforts in leading a lifestyle that minimizes the risk of develop depression (a disorder that, moreover, is present throughout the months, while we are only sad for a few hours or days).

Depression also leads people to behave in a way that feeds the disorder., generating a vicious circle; sadness does not have this effect, among other things because its duration is shorter and it does not significantly modify habits. This is another reason why early therapeutic intervention is important in the case of suffering from a depressive disorder.

Finally, it is also essential to know the distinction between the two things because, beyond stereotypes, it is not even true that all people with depression feel very sad. Some of them reach a state of affective flattening in which they feel that nothing matters to them, and therefore they do not even feel emotions intensely; In any case, they want to stop having to face daily situations that exhaust them psychologically and frustrate them. Depression is a phenomenon that goes beyond a specific emotion.

• Related article: "The 10 benefits of going to psychological therapy"

Do you want to have professional psychological assistance?

If you are going through difficult times and you notice that your day-to-day causes you emotional discomfort, I invite you to contact me.

My name is Tomás Santa Cecilia and I am an expert psychologist in cognitive-behavioral psychology; I attend adults and adolescents either in my office in Madrid or through the online modality by video call.