Sadness

We explain what sadness is, its causes, consequences and how it is expressed physically. Also, how to deal with it and alleviate it.

What is sadness?

We commonly call sadness (from the Latin sad), still affective state characterized by emotional pain or suffering that is, due to emotional decay, the opposite of joy. We usually express it through despondency, tears, crying or lack of energy and appetite, among many other possible symptoms.

According to the American psychologist and pioneer in the study of emotions Paul Enkman, sadness should be understood as one of the seven universal human emotions, along with anger, contempt, fear, disgust, happiness and sadness. surprise. This means that everyone suffers from it at some point and that it is not at all indicative of mental disorders or other problems.

The sadness It's a passing feeling (that is its main difference from certain problems such as depression) derived from fear in early childhood.

However, like all emotions, comprises a range of emotional states ranging from disappointment and discouragement, among the least intense, to grief, pain and misery, among the most intense. Logically, the intensity of sadness generally corresponds to the severity or seriousness of the stimulus that triggers it.

At the same time, it is possible to feel sadness in the absence of immediate stimuli, and in those cases we usually give it other names, such as melancholy or nostalgia (when it is caused by memory), and on many occasions we perceive it together with other types of emotions, like anger or fear. We must not forget that the human emotional spectrum is broad, complex and diverse.

See also: Affection

Why do we feel sad?

Sadness can be triggered by very different reasons, which have to do with the person's history or their existential, emotional or family situation. However, the most common triggers for sadness are usually the following:

• The loss. The death of a family member or a loved or admired one, the breakup of a couple, or even geographical distance from said people (such as emigration or a very long trip).
• The rejection. Being rejected by a potential lover, or being denied entry into a group of friends, or being publicly humiliated and made to feel unappreciated by others.
• The failure. The frustration of our expectations regarding something important, or the cancellation of an event that we intensely wanted, or the impediment of some personal initiative in which we invested time, effort and hopes.
• The disappointment. The betrayal of a loved one, the breaking of another's promise or some situation in which we feel our emotions violated by a person we trust.
• The transition. The loss of some aspect of our personal identity due to personal changes and life transitions, such as job changes, graduations, etc.

Body expression of sadness

Sadness imposes certain predictable reactions on the body, especially on the features of the face, whose purpose is the social expression of the emotional state. In general, a sad person will have several of the following bodily reactions:

• Your body will be weak with loss of muscle tone and crestfallen or humped posture.
• Your gaze will tend to avoid that of others and fixate on indeterminate points, reflecting greater introversion.
• Your face will tend to lose firmness with the lips and eyelids curving downward, and the eyebrows meeting in the center of the brow and upward.

On the other hand, you will have sensations of tightness in the chest, heaviness in the limbs, moist eyes and lack of appetite. All of this may or may not be accompanied by crying, lamentations or silent tearing.

Now, from a neurological point of view, sadness is associated with the decrease in serotonin in the brain and to the increase in neuronal activity in the temporal lobe, temporal cerebellum, vermis, mysencephalon, putamen and caudate.

consequences of sadness

Sadness is a painful emotion, but it has a specific purpose in our emotional life, which is to draw our attention to an emotionally important event. That is to say, allows us to deal with emotional pain, loss and grief and thus prevents these emotions from nesting silently inside us and later expressing themselves in less controllable or unpredictable ways.

On the other hand, sadness (your own and also that of others) invites us to empathize with the pain of others which is key to the construction of the social fabric of human beings, and can also have a cathartic role, that is, an emotional purge, which leaves us renewed and strengthened. For this reason, many people seek to submit to artificial experiences (movies, books, etc.) that induce temporary, manageable and superficial sadness.

In general, we must understand sadness as a moment of transition between a fruitless attitude or an invalid emotional panorama, and new ones. In that sense, usually consists of an adaptive emotion, part of a process of change.

How to face and alleviate sadness?

The first thing to know, when dealing with sadness, is that it is a natural and necessary emotion, which we should normally be able to go through without bringing more catastrophic consequences in our lives. That is to say, sadness is a natural reaction to a painful event, and it makes no sense to try to live a life completely unrelated to sad feelings.

That said, there are natural reactions to sadness:

• The isolation since we seek to withdraw from what caused us pain and “lick our wounds,” figuratively, alone or accompanied by those we consider part of our intimate and safe environment.
• The distraction since many people prefer to evade the pain they feel through recreational activities or activities that induce necessary joy. However, this distraction can only work for a while, and eventually the sadness will have to be faced, whether we want it or not. People unable to do so run the risk of deeper falls later, or of committing irresponsible actions while fleeing sadness.
• The vulnerability that is, the expression of pain openly, inviting compassion from other people and allowing the emotion to complete its cycle. Many times the only way to experience sadness healthily is to cry.

If the sadness does not subside over time, but ends up worsening into depression or other chronic conditions that impede vital functioning, specialist intervention may be necessary (psychologists or psychotherapists) who provide additional psychic or medical tools, so that sadness completes its cycle and a new stage opens for the person.

Continue with: Enthusiasm

References

• “Sadness” on Wikipedia.
• “Psychology of emotions: sadness” in Psicoglobal.
• “Sadness, what it is, what it is for and how it is expressed” in the Galene Institute.
• “What is Sadness?” at Paul Ekman Group.
• “Sadness (emotion)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.