I feel like a frickin cloud has been hanging over my head for the past few days. But, it has nothing to do with the weather because the days have been perfect the last few days. I feel sad today because for one week I lacked the medications I needed. So, it’s restarting the meds that is making me kind of out of it and some sadness. All I want to do is sleep. The medicines I ran out of were Olanzapine (Zyprexa) and Duloxetine (Cymbalta). My brain is in such a fog right now, I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. Although, one good thing for starting the meds up again is that I’m sleeping much better.
So, what is the difference is between sadness and depression. Sadness just comes and goes, whereas depression is substantially having persistent thoughts of self criticism about yourself. It lasts a lot longer. As a result, it can even lead to suicide if not untreated.
Sadness is an emotional pain associated with, or characterized by, feelings of disadvantage, loss, despair, grief, helplessness, disappointment and sorrow. Therefore, an individual experiencing sadness may become quiet or lethargic, and withdraw themselves from others. My sadness was due to a lack of medications that I really needed.
Here are 5 differences between sadness and depression:
Firstly, sadness is an emotion. Depression is a mental illness.
Sadness is brief. Depression persists much longer.
In addition, sadness is a specific reaction. Depression is an abnormal general state.
Sadness temporarily changes your mood. Depression changes your life.
Lastly, sadness is subjective. Depression is diagnosed. Hormonal Changes
Aside from low energy levels, hormonal imbalances can also affect the way you feel. Furthermore, emotions often encountered include irritability and sadness.
Here are 3 hormones that need to be balanced in the body to keep your emotions in check.
Serotonin: It is a brain chemical that promotes feelings of well-
being and happiness. When hormone levels drop, serotonin
levels also fall, which contributes to increased irritability,
anxiety and sadness.
Estrogen: Subsequently, it affects the reproductive tract, the urinary tract,
the heart and blood vessels, bones, breasts, skin, hair,
mucous membranes, pelvic muscles, and the brain.
Signs of low estrogen include:
Firstly, dry skin.
Tender breasts.
Additionally, weak or brittle bones.
Trouble concentrating.
Moodiness and irritability.
Lastly, hot flashes and night sweats.
Progesterone: Due to the risks or side effects of estrogen, many women
choose a hormonal contraceptive that is formulated only
with progestin. Even so, with limited progestin exposure,
concerns exist about side effects including weight gain,
acne, mood changes and depression.
Lack of Sleep
In brief, poor sleep may create difficulties regulating emotions that, in turn, may leave you more vulnerable to depression in the future — months or even years from now. And depression itself is associated with sleep difficulties such as shortening the amount of restorative slow wave sleep a person gets each night.
Stress
In any event, too much stress can lead to depression. Your body just shuts down because of an overload of stress. Nonetheless, some people who go through severe stress may experience suicidal feelings. This can be very distressing. Presently, stressful life events are among the most potent factors that trigger or induce depressive episodes in humans.
“Depression disrupts your life, so you often are more isolated,” Prescott, PhD, associate professor of Health Administration and Public Health Administration and Public Health at Husson University in Bangor, ME. “Sometimes you shrink your interpersonal network and stop doing a lot of activities, like work or school or things that you enjoy. We know that kind of isolation makes your perceived stress level go up, so we know that depression can cause stress.”Major Depression
Major depression, on the other hand, is a mental health disorder—though a sense of sadness that weighs on you for most of the time for the majority of a week is a key symptom. So too is discovering that you aren’t getting any pleasure out of activities that you traditionally enjoyed.
Additional symptoms may include:
Firstly, agitation or restlessness
Mental sluggishness, trouble concentrating, and difficulty making
decisions
Additionally, a lack of energy and feeling sleepy during the day
Difficulty sleeping at night
Lastly, a feeling of guilt or worthlessness
Persistent Depressive Disorder
A diagnosis of persistent depressive disorder indicates that a person’s depression has lasted for two years or more. For some people, persistent depression is relatively mild; for others, it can include all of the symptoms of major depressive disorder experienced over time. However, many people land somewhere in between those two poles with the intensity of their depression varying. But while the symptoms may be mild sometimes
and severe at others, the fact that depression is consistently impacting a person’s quality of life is the defining feature of persistent depressive disorder.
Bipolar Disorder
In sum, a person suffering from bipolar disorder experiences extremely high moods some of the time. They also experience extremely low moods some of the time. In essence, a person experiencing the high side of bipolar disorder may go days without sleeping and find themselves bursting with creativity and energy—but not wholly in control of their behavior. In contrast, a person experiencing the low side of the disorder may have real trouble getting out of bed and have little to no interest in engaging with the world.
Here are 5 tips:
Firstly, have confidence that things will improve.
Be honest with yourself and the people around you.
Do things that you enjoy and that are good for you.
Is there something you can do about the cause of your sadness?
Lastly, tackle one problem at a time.
Also, don’t feel sad today because of lack of medications like I did. I know medicine is not every piece to the puzzle, but if left out, you feel incomplete and lost in the world.
Side Effects
Therefore, quitting an antidepressant suddenly may cause symptoms within a day or two, such as:
Firstly, anxiety
Insomnia or vivid dreams
Headaches
Fourthly, dizziness
Tiredness
Irritability
Flu-like symptoms, including achy muscles and chills
Nausea
Lastly, electric shock sensations
Withdrawal
If you feel sad today because of lack of medications, these symptoms occur within two to four days after drug cessation and usually last one to two weeks (occasionally may persist up to one year). In like manner, if the same or a similar drug is started, the symptoms will resolve within one to three days.
What vitamins help with antidepressant withdrawal?
Vitamin B12: There’s certainly a lot more to learn about Vitamin
B12’s role in depression, but there’s no doubting
the fact that it does play a role in the symptoms - at
at least indirectly.
Vitamins B3 and B9 also help with antidepressant withdrawal. B9 is
known to help improve the synthesis of mood-regulating
neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine,
and epinephrine. In particular, there’s an increasing amount of
research suggesting that B9 can be used alongside
antidepressants to help them work more efficiently.
Symptoms Come Back
If I feel sad today because of lack of medications, it's my own fault for trusting in people that are just out to do me harm. In reality, the return of depression or anxiety usually takes longer – typically weeks or months. Some antidepressants, like fluoxetine, take a lot longer to leave the body. So, with these, symptoms, they can start days or even weeks after stopping or reducing your dose.
In the same way, if side effects seem intolerable, you may be tempted to stop taking an
antidepressant or to reduce your dose on your own. Don't do it. In time, your symptoms may return, and stopping your antidepressant suddenly may cause withdrawal-like symptoms. That's what happened to me, I went through withdrawals. Consequently, I had already asked someone to lend me money, but with the meds I'm on, it wasn't enough. So, I stopped taking probably the two most important meds that I take for about a week. Pure hell!
On the whole, depression is a common mental illness that affects millions of people around the world. However, many people suffering from depression may believe they are simply just sad. Likewise, those who do not suffer from depression may mistake extreme sadness as depression. Unlike depression, sadness is a typical human emotion and a natural part of life that may sometimes even be beneficial. In contrast, depression is unhealthy and may require treatment to alleviate.
It is normal to react to difficult experiences such as losing a loved one, job or friendship by feeling sad. In fact, it is emotionally healthy to be sad during hard times because it allows you to process the negative event in a healthy manner. Therefore, suppressing sadness may result in suppressing other emotions such as joy or excitement, which in turn may lead to a much duller life. Experiencing and accepting sadness is a beneficial way to stay in tune with our emotions. The key to sadness, however, is that people tend to be sad about something in particular, not simply in general.
I feel sad today because of a lack of certain medications. I started back up on them yesterday, but I haven’t gotten the full affect yet. Please, whatever you do, if your on meds make sure you continuously take them.Most important, don’t run out because it sends you back in the depths of Hell. That’s how I felt the entire week. Until next time…
-The difference between depression and sadness
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/314418
-Understanding And Managing Withdrawn Behavior
https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/behavior/what-is-withdrawn-behavior-and-what-causes-it
-What causes someone to feel sad for no reason?
Have a Good One,
Cindee Murphy, One Voice In The Vastness Of Emotions
“You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.” –F. Scott Fitzgerald
Depressed After Vacation(Opens in a new browser tab)
Depression Due To Isolation(Opens in a new browser tab)
Major Depressive Disorder With Anxious Distress(Opens in a new browser tab)
https://www.bvhealthsystem.org/expert-health-articles/depression-versus-sadness
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