How do I know if I'm sad or depressed?

if you have lost interest in things that typically bring you pleasure and just generally feel down for at least a couple of weeks there is a good chance you are suffering from depression.

If you are sad you are usually sad for a short time until you are happy again and you get cheered up. Depression is where you are sad all the time and you can't find happiness and its almost like your in a long dark tunnel and can't find the light

I use my brain, and ask myself if there REALLY is something bad, terribly sad happening in my life.... Depression has an all consuming feel about it, a gloomy shroud that covers experience and distorts vision, but always seems to be glaringly true. It isn't. And now what helps me is I always know it will pass.

sadness happens to everybody but usually clears up in about a week, but if your symptoms of sadness last for a few weeks to maybe even a few months then you may have deppresion

If your sadness and low feelings persist for a prolonged period of time. It effects your day to day life, and your plans. It doesn't seem to go away; it's constant and heavy.

Usually everyone experience sadness at different times in our lives however, depression is a disorder that does not allow you to function as you normally do. If you find difficulties in acomplishing what used to be easy for you, or things that you used to enjoy are not cutting it anymore might be some signs that you are dealing with more than just sadness. The best course of action is to go to an specialist if you are concerned

Depression is more than sadness. Depression is feeling lost, lonely, scared, agitated. Feeling melancholic is a lot less complex.

Depression and sadness can be connected. Depression occurs frequently and lasts for months where sadness can come and go.

I am not with sophisticated methods in understanding human emotions. To me being sad is more short and isolated state while depression is a longer and continuous state.

When sadness is "just" an emotion, depression is more considered as a state, the major difference being that a state longs when an emotion doesn't. If you're just sad you're going to feel better at some point within the next minutes/hours/days depending on how sad you are. You can find things to cheer you up -anything that usually works for you. If it last more than a few days and if nothing you try makes you feel better, you can start suspecting a depression. Therefore sadness usually comes from a specific situation -not all the time but mostly. If you're depressed you might not be able to understand what exactly is making you feel bad.