"Why do I feel sad?" The question that changes everything

Psychology has many ins and outs, nuances and details that make this field a complicated world, difficult to understand. However, sometimes the worst thing is not that our minds are themselves complicated, but that when we have an emotional problem we do not ask ourselves the right questions. That is why it is so important to get to the question: "why do I feel sad?". From that moment, everything in our life can begin to change.

In this article we will see what makes sadness so persistent, what are the traps we fall into when trying get out of unhappiness and in what way can we begin to consider the reconstruction of our own life starting from a very simple.

• Related article: "85 phrases of sadness and emotional pain"

Unhappiness is camouflaged

Today it is difficult to detect unhappiness when it appears. Most people choose to present their best image of themselves, and they have many resources to do so; Among them, the social networks in which they filter the photos and the content that talk about them stand out.

So, When it comes to understanding what happiness consists of, it is not easy to have a reference. We look both ways, we see that everyone seems happy, and we assume that, if we are considering that, perhaps we are not; but beyond that, we know very little about what happens to us.

Nor does living a hectic pace of life make things easier. In many cases, work doesn't leave us time to breathe and worry about our feelings.

Taking into account the above, it is very frequent that this possible unhappiness, which we were not even able to fully recognize when not conceiving another way of life, turns into sadness. But when this happens two things happen.

On the one hand, we hit rock bottom, we feel really bad, sometimes turning over and over to Memories of a better past that we can only see through nostalgia. On the other hand, the fact of clearly recognizing that we are wrong allows us to start working to feel better. And it all starts with a simple question.

Why do I feel sad? Recomposing my own emotions

Sadness has many facets, and one of the most damaging is the fact that it paralyzes us. And this is a feeling that affects not only the way in which we analyze the past and the present, but also the future. By eliminating much of our expectations of progress in the bud, our motivation also disappears and, with it, our possibilities to improve.

But all this happens only if we accept the frame of mind that sadness provides us. If we ask ourselves a "why am I sad?" be honest, new possibilities appear to approach our problems in a constructive way. That is, in a way that places several objectives in our short, medium and long term future.

After all, sadness is not a station of arrival in life, as if we could not get out of it. We learn to feel this way, and in the same way, we can learn to go out of that state. It is important not to treat it as if it were a label that perfectly describes everything a person is or will be, in the same way that one is tall or short.

How not to confuse this feeling with depression

If you have already established that you feel sad, you should not confuse this state with depression, a sometimes confusing concept which can be mistakenly used as a synonym for sadness.

Depression is a mental disorder that often goes hand in hand with deep sadness, but it is more than this. In people with depressive symptoms, it is common to have no motivation for practically anything: neither to seek help nor to carry out activities to try to cheer up. It is very common too who have difficulty experiencing pleasure, phenomenon known as anhedonia.

In addition, depression can have no identifiable causes and appear in all types of people, regardless of their economic level and their popularity in social circles. In a way, it is unleashed in a way that completely overrides one's rationality, and whatever we do it won't let us go. That is why in these cases it is appropriate to go to therapy, since help is needed from outside.

Thus, while both sadness and depression have biological causes, in depression the environment explains fewer factors than neurological disorders.

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

Listen to your own emotions

So if you are in the mood to wonder why you feel sad and are motivated to change that, as well as not experiencing anhedonia and other unusual symptoms linked to the state of mind, you can go on to try to manage that sadness with your own tools by asking yourself several questions that try to answer the original. Remember that in psychology there is rarely a single cause that explains a phenomenon; there are usually many of them, and they all have various nuances to consider.

So, taking into account that sadness and hopelessness can be overcome, when you want to ask yourself why you feel sad, try to answer these questions:

• How long have I felt like this? Did it coincide with a specific event?
• Could someone be influencing my mood?
• What habits and customs could be feeding my sadness?
• Is there someone who can help me?
• Is it worth visiting a psychologist for therapy?

Starting to feel better is possible

If you learn to stop self-sabotaging yourself, it is usually possible to stop feeling sad. Of course, we are not solely responsible for how we feel: others may have hurt us a lot. However, taking charge of the situation and genuinely interested in improving is essential to be able to leave that discomfort behind.

Thus, it is necessary to be aware that feelings of sadness or joy are not something that arises spontaneously from us. It depends largely on the way in which we relate to others and our environment, so that to change our mood, it is necessary to promote change around us. How to do it is already something that depends on the values ​​and convictions of each one, and on our way of identifying a problem that is affecting us.