GuidoWorld

Sadness and Depression

August 17, 2008 on 6:59 pm | In Blogroll |

Over the last couple of decades the tendency to make these words interchangeable has grown. Depression, once a clinical term, has now become the more popular and used term in lay as well as professional conversation.

Yet, sadness and depression are not synonyms. They are vague terms which refer to experiences which lie on the same continuum and meet at the far end of their boundaries.

At their centers sadness and depression have defined differences. Sadness is a feeling, and in most cases a very strong and powerful feeling. The feeling of sadness can be painful and full of regret, but it can also be a rich and fulfilling experience.

Sadness is the root emotion of much popular music and art. Sad love songs and movies are not only popular but often cited as individual’s favorites. One could make a case that the realms of poetry and dramatic theater are dominated by the emotion of sadness. Entire forms of visual art and music such as the blues are centered around the experience of sadness.

In sum, sadness can be a very powerful and oddly fulfilling emotion, which a person can use to enrich their lives.

Depression, on the other hand, is often the absence of feeling rather than a feeling itself. Clinically it often involves a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. It can make one numb, and leave one paralyzed. When accompanied by a feeling it is usually a feeling of pain or dread.

Where sadness can make you feel so alive, depression can suck the life completely out of you.

Yet, since depression has become the popular term many people and professionals missuse and overuse the term. Even when referring to a young child you will frequently hear people describe the child as depressed when they are just a little down spirited or sad.

Our society often states as a goal for all people to be happy. Emotions such as sadness are often viewed in a negative light. Yet, in reality, happiness and sadness are not necessarily antonyms nor mutually exclusive. I can experience sadness while being in a general state of happiness. I can use sadness to actually increase my general sense of happiness and my infatuation with life.

Yet, our general strategy is to try to repress or overcome sadness. I believe one of the reasons we do this is due to our tendency to equate sadness with depression.

The question then becomes why do we overuse the term depression?

Well for one thing it just sounds more adult like and professional. It also has one take notice and listen to you. Since depression is a diagnosis and sadness is not, one cannot get medication for sadness and generally will not qualify for professional services for being sad.

Since drug companies advertise everywhere we are bombarded with the term depression. The sale of their product depends on your experience being defined as depression and not as sadness. Likewise even talk therapists have a tendency to speak in diagnostic terms and labels. This makes it likely they will describe someone as being depressed rather than sad. Also, therapist often are paid through insurance companies and government agencies who will only reimburse for labels such as depression and would deny payment for any other terminology.

The result of our society’s obsession with labeling so many people as being depressed, is that the distinction between depression and sadness has been removed. In general, the entire concept of sadness has been replaced with a preoccupation with depression. This has only exaggerated our unrealistic expectations of our maintaining only one acceptable mood (happiness), while making any deviation from this one mood life damaging or threatening.

In the next post I will discuss some of the ways our growing emphasis on depression is being played out in our society.

Below I’ve pasted a few of my songs and their lyrics which deal with aspects of sadness and depression.

She’s Not Here (lyrics/reveries)
Haunted (lyrics/reveries)
Grieving (lyrics/reveries)
Mundane Blues (lyrics/reveries

Again you are invited to listen to more of my songs in the music section of this site. I feel many of you will find my ideas easier to feel when they are expressed in song.

Jim Guido