Feeling Sad
Question -
How do you know when sadness (from an event in your life) is something more serious than just sadness?
Answer -
Hello, and thank you for reaching out with your great question.
It’s normal and healthy to feel sadness at times in your life, particularly in response to difficult events, past unresolved traumas, or when you have experienced a loss.
The type and level of sadness you may feel about an event would vary depending on the intensity of the event, and depending on your history, experiences, the support systems you have around you, and how you tend to emotionally regulate and cope with big feelings. How sad you feel can also be impacted if there are multiple incidences and additional stressors in your life contributing to that sadness.
If the sadness begins to adversely impact on your usual everyday functioning over a significant amount of time, know that you don’t need to carry it alone, and can seek support to help you work through it.
Examples of when sadness is impacting on your life in a way, which inhibits usual functioning, over a long period of time include:
Difficulty concentrating or doing usual or every day tasks
Decrease/increase in sleep and appetite
Persistent negative or unhelpful thought patterns
Persistent ruminating thoughts
Thoughts of harming yourself or others
Loss of joy doing activities you normally enjoy
Withdrawing from your usual support system
Acquiring or developing unhelpful coping mechanisms over time (for example, excessive drinking, binge eating, or constantly distracting from feeling things).
These may be flags that you’re experiencing complicated (prolonged and more complex) grief after a loss, or depressed symptoms. Depressed symptoms are signs that tell us we have been feeling very overwhelmed for a long time, and now need some help to feel like ourselves again, and access feelings of joy. Everyone at times in their lives can go through one or more of the above symptoms; the key is accessing support before the patterns become entrenched and more difficult to shift out of.
Letting someone you trust know that you haven’t been feeling okay is a step towards getting the support you need. Seeing a holistic GP, therapist, or your preferred health professional to talk about your concerns can provide you with resources and strategies to help you work through your sadness.
Wishing you all the best,
~ Thania and Christina ~