The 8 types of sadness: characteristics, possible causes and symptoms

Be it for one thing or another, each and every one of us has ever been sad. We may have suffered a loss, a breakup, they gave us bad news, we had a fight with someone that we care, that we have not achieved a goal or simply that the discomfort of another person removes us at the internal.

We may not even know exactly why. But in each and every one of these cases it is common for a feeling of suffering, pain, frustration, emptiness and cold to appear. interior that can alter the way we see situations, the world and ourselves, usually with a vision negative.

Sadness, like its counterpart joy, is a universal emotion and is shared by all human beings as well as other animals. But although the basic emotion is one, the truth is that We often talk about different types of sadness depending on aspects such as what it is due to or whether or not it is coherent or useful with respect to said origin.

And it is about these different types of sadness that we are going to talk throughout this article.

• Related article: "The 8 types of emotions (classification and description)"

What is sadness?

Sadness is one of the calls basic emotions, along with joy, surprise, fear, surprise, anger and disgust. It is, as we have commented, a universal emotion shared by all humanity. regardless of their culture, race or way of life, although they can express themselves in ways different.

It arises as a partly psychic and partly physiological reaction to some kind of event, which can be exterior or interior. That is, it may appear derived from external events or stimulations (or the absence of these) or the existence of specific thoughts that we find aversive about and about which we consider that we cannot or that we have few options to do something.

Symptoms

It is generally defined as a feeling of discomfort, fatigue and low energy level that usually appears together with a perception of emptiness at the pectoral or intestinal level, a drop in self-esteem and a tendency to isolation and introspection. It is common for there to be some motor slowing down and lower muscle tone than usual. It also tends to go hand in hand with rumination around what its appearance has been able to generate, in addition to a decrease in the attention span towards the rest of the environment.

Sadness is a highly aversive emotion: most people do not like to be sad, as it usually involves discomfort and mental and / or physical suffering. Now, there are also people who come to experience a tendency or search for states of sadness, before the lack of desire or fear to change the situations that generate it or in the face of benefits secondary.

However, and despite the fact that in general we all try to avoid those situations that generate this emotion, the fact of that we can feel sad (as long as we do not reach pathological levels) is much more beneficial to us than it could think.

Main adaptive functions of sadness

The existence of sadness as something that we can all feel and that in addition to ourselves have a large number of animals is not something accidental: sadness has an adaptive function and that favors our survival.

Like the pain the perception of sadness can help us to carry out some type of action that allows us to get out of the situation that generates the feeling of discomfortAlthough sadness generally decreases energy, it also makes it easier for us to make changes in the future that prevent aversive stimulation from returning. That is, it can motivate us to change.

Another beneficial aspect is that the reduction in energy it generates allows us to save energy on a physical level, as well as favoring reflection and rumination about what is happening around us. In this way, sadness provides us with a context in which we can learn about the reason for its appearance and strengthen ourselves in the future.

It also makes us capable of entering a state of introspection and knowing deep aspects of our being that we would not consider with another state of mind. Likewise, feeling discomfort allows us to train our ability to face adversity, and over time it can alter our perception of competence and self-esteem.

Finally, as a general rule, sadness generates empathy and compassion for group members, with which expressing sadness can lead our environment to pay attention and take care of us. In this sense, it also has a group protection and cohesion function.

Types of sadness according to their functionality

Roughly we can identify four main types of sadness, depending on whether its existence is functional or not.

1. Adaptive sadness

We will consider that we are facing an adaptive or functional sadness when the emotion felt corresponds and is justified based on the situation or aspect that has generated it. It is therefore a sadness that arises in response to an internal or external event and after which our The body may need to lower the level of activity and process the information to achieve adapt.

It is therefore a healthy sadness, and is characterized by the fact that with time or action it will begin to diminish and even disappear. The most typical example is the sadness we feel in a moment of mourning.

2. Maladaptive sadness

Sadness is in principle adaptive in a natural way. Now, it is possible that in some people and in certain situations the emotion remains continuously, unmanageable and causing persistent suffering. In these cases, sadness is an added problem that must be managed.

It is what happens when there is a blockage of emotion and its expression. A poorly resolved grief that is not fully accepted would lead to a type of maladaptive sadness.

3. Pathological sadness

We consider pathological sadness to be the feeling or feeling of sadness, discouragement and lack of interest in the world in which the person shows little capacity to react on an emotional level but who often goes hand in hand with bursts of crying.

This state of mind is not congruent with any event or lack of it, or it appears in such a proportion that it is disproportionate to the situation from which it starts. It can lead to isolation or even in extreme cases to self-destructive behaviors. It's the kind of sadness that can appear in the depression or in other disorders.

4. Instrumental sadness

We consider sadness instrumental to that type of sadness that is used in order to achieve a specific objective thanks to it. It is a voluntary use of emotion, although it can be partly sincerely felt.

On the other hand, sometimes we can also be facing a complete simulation, in which there is only the externally observable part of sadness, and not the subjective one.

A philosophical vision: types of sadness according to Saint Thomas Aquinas

Sadness is and has always been one of the most basic human emotions, and has been studied since ancient times.. In this sense, historically some authors and researchers have tried to make different classifications regarding the existence of different types of sadness. An example of this was Saint Thomas of Aquino, which started from his research and from previous classifications made by authors such as Aristotle to make his own classification in this regard.

Although it may not have scientific validity, this way of cataloging the types of sadness is interesting on a historical and philosophical level as well as may suggest that in the background the different categories that it shows, although they are known as emotions different from each other, have in the background elements in common. Within this classification we find the following types of sadness.

1. Sadness for one's own evil

This kind of sadness It is characterized by appearing based on the suffering that one feels for oneself when some type of painful or aversive situation occurs, or by the deprivation of our needs and wills. It would be linked to deprivation or misery.

2. Compassion

Under the philosophical prism established by this author, compassion could be considered another type of sadness, which in this case refers to the suffering we perceive in others. Observing the suffering of a loved one moves us and can cause us sadness and discomfort.

Compassion is a characteristic that makes solidarity and help to the vulnerable possible, which is the foundation of societies.

3. Envy

Another type of sadness can come from observing how others come to have some type of good or reach some goal that we would like for ourselves.

Verifying that others do have what we want and cannot can generate sadness and suffering., from which envy arises. It is an emotional tension that arises from the comparison with those who we consider successful in some sense.

4. Discouragement or anguish

Sadness and anxiety are often deeply related. In this sense, discouragement or anguish can be considered a type of sadness that is linked to loss mobility or motivation when not finding anything that satisfies us or allows us to direct ourselves towards our goals. It is also related to uncertainty and the desire to keep some type of asset or stay on track towards your goals. On the other hand, this psychological factor is associated with demotivation.

Depression: beyond feeling sad

One of the concepts that is generally associated with sadness is depression. And it is that in the major depression or during depressive episodes one of the main and most important symptoms is the existence of a sad state of mind.

However, it would be wrong to identify depression with sadness since the former implies in addition to being sad a set of symptoms, among which anhedonia or lack of ability to feel pleasure, sleeping problems (both insomnia and excessive sleepiness), loss or increase in appetite, hopelessness and passivity, worldview, himself and the future as negative and aversive, lack of energy, concentration and libido or even thoughts suicidal.

• Recommended article: "The 6 differences between sadness and depression"

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