The first couple paragraphs might be triggering, you can skip over them if need be.
I have a daughter who'll be 21 in August. She has borderline personality disorder and does self-harm. As far as I can remember (ECT has really played a number on my memory) she hasn't hurt herself in a long time. But the other day I came home and her arm was covered in slashes. At first I dealt with it like we always deal with each other "What the hell!" Spoken in a loving motherly manner. She explained that she had been triggered by another cutter in a class she's taking, and, like always, responded with "I'm fine now." She has since decided to put off the class until next month when the other girl won't be in it.
We talked about it matter-of-factly (I know, that's not a real word) over lunch, then I went back to Greg's house. It wasn't until late that night that it hit me and I started crying. I sent her a text, because that's how we seem to communicate best, and told her I was so sorry for being callous earlier and that I felt bad that I wasn't there to stop her. She responded that I wasn't being callous, like I said before, that's just how we react to each other. She also told me that I couldn't have stopped her. She's right, she's done it before while I was home asleep. It's euphoric for her, and I understand because I used to do it too. But I felt sad that it happened, sad that there's nothing I can do.
In the past, these feelings would have triggered a depressive episode. Instead I just feel sad. It feels very different from depression. I function, I sleep, I only cried once, and I go on with my everyday life. I'm not devastated nor am I feeling despair. I just feel sad when I think about the situation.
This got me started thinking about the difference between sadness and depression.
One of Merriam-Webster 's definitions of depressed is: a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.
So sadness is a part of depression, but as you'll see it's certainly not the same thing.
One of their definitions of sad is: affected with or expressive of grief or unhappiness.
Very simple, big difference. You can look it up in Wikipedia , WebMD , and other websites. What I feel is only that, a feeling. I am, oddly, happy to say I am sad; this means my depression is still in remission. I'll be ok.
I have a daughter who'll be 21 in August. She has borderline personality disorder and does self-harm. As far as I can remember (ECT has really played a number on my memory) she hasn't hurt herself in a long time. But the other day I came home and her arm was covered in slashes. At first I dealt with it like we always deal with each other "What the hell!" Spoken in a loving motherly manner. She explained that she had been triggered by another cutter in a class she's taking, and, like always, responded with "I'm fine now." She has since decided to put off the class until next month when the other girl won't be in it.
We talked about it matter-of-factly (I know, that's not a real word) over lunch, then I went back to Greg's house. It wasn't until late that night that it hit me and I started crying. I sent her a text, because that's how we seem to communicate best, and told her I was so sorry for being callous earlier and that I felt bad that I wasn't there to stop her. She responded that I wasn't being callous, like I said before, that's just how we react to each other. She also told me that I couldn't have stopped her. She's right, she's done it before while I was home asleep. It's euphoric for her, and I understand because I used to do it too. But I felt sad that it happened, sad that there's nothing I can do.
In the past, these feelings would have triggered a depressive episode. Instead I just feel sad. It feels very different from depression. I function, I sleep, I only cried once, and I go on with my everyday life. I'm not devastated nor am I feeling despair. I just feel sad when I think about the situation.
This got me started thinking about the difference between sadness and depression.
One of Merriam-Webster 's definitions of depressed is : a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.
So sadness is a part of depression, but as you'll see it's certainly not the same thing.
One of their definitions of sad is: affected with or expressive of grief or unhappiness.
Very simple, big difference. You can look it up in Wikipedia , WebMD , and other websites. What I feel is only that, a feeling. I am, oddly, happy to say I am sad; this means my depression is still in remission. I'll be ok.
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