FAQ: What Is the Difference Between Clinical Depression and Sadness?
Wednesday June 24, 2009
Although depression is often thought of a being an extreme state of sadness, there is a vast difference between clinical depression and sadness. Sadness is a part of being human, a natural reaction to painful circumstances. All of us will experience sadness at some point in our lives. Depression, however, is a physical illness with many more symptoms than an unhappy mood. The person with clinical depression finds that there is not always a logical reason for his dark feelings. Exhortations from well-meaning friends and family for him to "snap out of it" provide only frustration for he can no more "snap out of it" than the diabetic can will his pancreas to produce more insulin. Sadness is a transient feeling that passes as a person comes to term with his troubles. Depression can linger for weeks, months or even years. The sad person feels bad, but continues to cope with living. A person with clinical depression may feel overwhelmed and hopeless.
Comments
My Dad was a subscriber to the “Just snap out of it and pull yourself up by your bootstraps” school of thought when I was a kid in the 1960’s. I wish it were that easy.
My mom was an alcoholic and he coped by working long hours. My sister was old enough to make herself “absent” a lot. Guess who got stuck with mom, her bottle and her Valium addiction?
So I’m an ACoA with lots of issues, on antidepressants to survive while trying to get my insurance company to let me see a therapist again (third time in 15 years). I often wonder how I would have turned out if my dad had made the effort to get us kids out of there and/or get us some help. My dad still doesn’t understand my depression (or my sister’s)to this day.
Plus I just hit my so-called “midlife crisis,” so I have a lot to deal with. Oh, and I married an ACoA, too. “Birds of a feather…”
I have Bipolar Disorder 2 but mostly only deal
with the depressive side of my illness. I also
have a mood disorder but that’s another post. Anyway, I have experienced both being sad and having clinical depression and although both of them feel the same, they’re really not, as the author of the NL and Depression web site points out in a lot of different articles. Before July 2, 07 I was not a sad person, nor did I have Clinical depression, but on that day my father passed away. After the shock went away, and I had to deal with the raw feelings, I got sad, but I also developed Clinical Depression, which required a second anti-depressant, to boost, the 1st anti-depressant I was taking. It took a long time for me to get over my father’s passing, but, I
got over his death a lot quicker and easier,
than my mom’s death. I grieved her passing for
several years, almost 10 yrs!! I just couldn’t
get over the guilt with my mom of unfinished business and not enoough said between her and I, while she was on her death bed. My father, on the other hand, I had not had unfinished biz with my father, therefore, making my dad’s
passing less traumatic than my mom’s death. Trust me nothing about death is easy! Take care all and peace out.
QuestionAuthority, I read your post and really could relate to what you were saying. I also grew up in an alcoholic and dysfunctional home, where my mother was the alcoholic and that’s actually how she ultimately passed away, was from Cirrhoisis of the liver. I can relate when you talk about your sister being conveniently absent so you were the one to be with your mom, her bottle and Valium addiction. My mom also went through clinical depression with panic attacks
and Agoraphobia. Her doctor prescribed her dangerous MAO Inhibitors, which are hardly ever used anymore. I think the use of that med
contibuted to her liver failure. My sister was
also absent, but not physically. Mentally. She
was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, and at the same time my brother was diagnosed with cancer
but after a lot of treatment, he survived and has been cancer free for over 30 years now.
Anyway, my siblings are both older than me. My brother is almost 10 years older than me and my sister is 6 years older than me, thus I was alone with my mother after my siblings moved out.
I often wondered why my father never left her, or got us away from her, or even took the check book to work with him, so she couldn’t get any money out to buy the alcohol. That was a time before ATM cards.
Thanks for posting your story. It let me know that I’m not alone in this world, feeling so very dysfuntional, but I’m not the only ACOA.
To those who commented, my heart goes out to you. I hope you find the love and support that I have through my struggles with someone else’s drinking, sobriety, and alcohol related death. I encourage you to try alanon, and see if it is right for you.
Love to you both.
Hey I read a great book called feeling good the new mood therapy, by david d burns,m.d.
Helped heaps, still have emotions to deal with they will proabably never really go completely away but there are great coping skills to help.Good luck.