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

Sadness is an adaptive human emotion. It shows that we care about stuff. It helps us prioritize and make decisions based on our best interest. The sadness we feel from loneliness can motivate us to go out and look for someone. We feel it when we lose people we care about and it shows us how much they mattered to us. In the end, as painful as it is, it demonstrates that life was worth it. Depression is not like that. Depression is maladaptive. It is not simply an emotion that will pass by itself. Depression seeps into your whole being. It weighs you down and makes you feel sluggish and tired. It messes with your sleep and your appetite. It stops you from doing things and caring about things. It makes you wish you could feel sad so you could stop feeling empty. It makes you feel like you have nothing, or that you are nothing, even though this is never true. It doesn't push us to solve our problems like loneliness, it pushes us to wallow in them. It takes away your motivation to do anything about it. In this way, it is a silent killer. If you ever feel depression, please go to a doctor. Unlike sadness, depression isn't a normal part of life and it won't always go away on its own.

Great question! Depression is a deeper feeling and has more actions that go with it's feeling. You will know if you're depressed if you recieve any of these symptoms; loss of appetite, increase of appetite, sleeping more, sleeping less, suicidal thoughts, self harm, laziness, any many more symptoms. The most distinctive thing about depression is when you're just not happy about ANYTHING.

Wen I was wondering if I was depressed or just sad, it helped to do some research and read up on feeling depressed. That way, I could better determine what I was feeling through learning about the difference between sadness and depression.

Sadness is a normal human emotion and you know you'll be happy again. With depression there is an absence of this hope that you will be happy again.

You can always try seeking professional help from a psychiatrist, that is if your family is supportive, otherwise it might create more problems..

Depression is a constant thing, It will not leave you alone, you may start feeling more drowsy, unaware of how you are treating people. If you are sad, it may take you longer to realise how to start to treat people, but you do realise it. With depression you push people away constantly until they refuse to come back, then you realise you are alone with your depression and it will hurt, it will hurt very badly. This answer is not to scare you, more to make you aware of some of the things. The most important thing is: sometimes you may want to tell people about this depression, then realise you shouldn't. This is something that makes it hard for people to realise, please, if this continues, seek professional help.

I think you know you're depressed and not just sad when it starts to interrupt with doing your daily activities.

Depression can be divided into 2 categories: the sadness you feel after a tragedy ie. bullying, death, or a long term sadness. Long term sadness is generally what is described as depression. However, sadness doesn't always mean upset, sadness also covers disappointment and rejection.

If you're depressed, chances are the feeling of despair and loneliness can last for a long period of time. While being sad is a feeling that can be overpowered by happiness.

Depression is prolonged sadness mood, paired with cognitive impairments (i.e., difficulty concentrating, memory loss), which leads to impairments in your life. On the other hand, sadness is just a mood that comes and goes and doesn't lead to impairment in your life.