I thought depression meant extreme sadness, so why sometimes do I not feel anything at all?

Depression is so much more complex than that, Ive experienced overwhelming sadness, numbness, emptiness, sometimes just weakness in general, the lack of desire to do anything and so many other random emotions I never saw as depression. The stereotype that depression=sadness is inaccurate and harmful because just because we dont feel sad we assume were fine, which means we arent seeking help and in turn causes the depression to worsen. My most common symptom is numbness, I dont even realize it because well.. im numb. I dont feel happy or sad, I dont feel angry or excited, no emotions ever settle in and since I cant tell, it ends up progressing into other things like lack of drive and motivation and THEN all the sad stuff. Its important to pin point any abnormal feelings you may be having because they may or may not be related to depression and if caught early enough, can save you a harder time

This is actually very common in depression. Some people feel it as numbness, others as sadness, and others as both. Neither is the "right" or "wrong" way.

Depression is multifaceted and can appear in many forms. This is why the official diagnostic criteria have various subcategories, in an attempt to encompass the whole spectrum. The feeling of emptiness is quite a common aspect and it is usually what leads to nihilistic viewpoints and the whole "what does it even matter" thought process.

Depression has many diffrent forms ... Feeling numb or nothing can be a symptom of depression ! It's great that your in touch with how your feeling it shows great insite 😊

Feeling nothing or emptiness is another aspect of depression. Everyone feels depression differently; for some people it is extreme sadness, for others the dominant feeling is nothing or numbness or even just chronic boredom.

Sometimes, when we're depressed, we tend to think of every thing that's wrong with ourselves or the world around us. But other times we tend to feel absolutely nothing at all..

Numbness or separation from emotion is an extremely common sign of depression. Don't worry, it's valid.

Sometimes we feel so much emotional all the time that we become blind to it and we forget what it feels like to be excited or happy and that can lead to feeling numb. I've been this way for awhile now.

Depression varies from person to person. People doesn't feel same kind during depression. It rises from different circumstances and thus provides different emotions. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed by our feelings that it seems that emotions no longer exist.

I'm sorry to hear that you are going through a tough time with depression, sometimes depression can mean different things to each individual who suffers from it, there are many many symptoms of depression, feel free to check this link out for more info http://www.healthtalk.org/young-peoples-experiences/depression-and-low-mood/what-does-depression-feel-emotional-cognitive-experiences. So you maybe persistently sad and unhappy, or you may feel that you're not feeling anything at all, this is the feeling of numbness, we feel numb when we are experiencing a lot of thoughts and feelings in our brain, it makes us too afraid to feel the emotions and make us depressed and therefore feel numb, however, you gotta try sorting your feelings out one by one and managing them and gradually learning to recognize what you're feeling. Feel free to check out our lovely 7cups Managing Emotions Self-Help Guide! :)