Shari B. Kaplan, LCSW explains how sadness and clinical depression differ. Depression lasts longer and affects sleep, appetite, motivation, and sense of self. It may need therapy like EMDR or trauma work.
What is the difference between sadness and depression? This is a great question because I think there's a lot of people out there who are just experiencing sadness, but they switch it over to the word depression because they've heard that so much on social media. So sadness is a temporary emotional state that is often tied to a specific event, like something that you are experiencing. Whereas depression is more persistent. It lasts over, like, several weeks. It affects your sleep. Your appetite can completely go away or could become excessive. You might not feel as motivated, or you might not stop moving. And it affects your identity, like your sense of self. So depression may require some, like, extra support. It may need some trauma-releasing work or some EMDR or some other therapeutic intervention.
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