• What is sadness?
• Why do we feel sad?
• Body expression of sadness
• Consequences of sadness
• How to face and alleviate sadness?

We explain what sadness is, its causes, consequences and how it is expressed in the body. Also, how to deal with it and alleviate it.

The intensity of sadness usually depends on the severity of the stimulus that triggers it.

What is sadness?

We commonly call sadness (from the Latin sad), to an affective state characterized by emotional pain or suffering, that is, by mood decay, the opposite of joy. We usually express it through depression, tears, crying or lack of energy and appetites, among many other possible symptoms.

According to the American psychologist and pioneer in the study of emotions Paul Enkman, sadness should be understood as one of the seven universal emotions of the human being, along with anger, contempt, fear, disgust, happiness and surprise. This means that everyone suffers from it at some point and that it is in no way indicative of mental or mental disorders. problems of another nature.

Sadness is a fleeting feeling (that is its main difference with respect to certain problems such as depression) derived in early childhood from fear.

However, like all emotions, it comprises a range of emotional states ranging from disappointment and discouragement, among the least intense, to grief, pain, and misery, among the most intense. Logically, the intensity of sadness generally corresponds to the severity or seriousness of the stimulus that triggers it.

At the same time, it is possible to feel sadness in the absence of immediate stimuli, and in those cases we usually give it other names, such as melancholy or nostalgia (when the memory causes it), and on many occasions we perceive it in conjunction with other types of emotions, such as anger or fear. We must not forget that the emotional spectrum human it is vast, complex and diverse.

Why do we feel sad?

Sadness can be triggered by very different reasons, having to do with the history of the person or with their existential, emotional or family situation. However, the most common triggers for sadness are usually the following:

• Loss. The death of a relative or a loved or admired one, the breakup of a couple, or even geographical distance from said people (such as in emigration or on a very long trip).
• Rejection. Being rejected by a potential lover, or being denied entry into a group of friends, or publicly humiliating us and making us feel despised by others.
• The failure. The frustration of our expectations regarding something important, or the cancellation of an event that we intensely desired, or the impediment of some personal initiative in which we invest time, effort and hope.
• The disappointment. The betrayal of a loved one, the breaking of an alien promise or some situation in which we feel our emotions violated by a person we trust.
• The transition. The loss of some aspect of our personal identity due to changes personal and life transitions, such as job changes, graduations, etc.

Body expression of sadness

The facial expression of sadness reflects greater introversion.

Sadness imposes on the Body certain predictable reactions, especially in the facial features, whose purpose is the social expression of the state of mind. In general, a sad person will have several of the following bodily reactions:

• Your body will be down, with loss of muscle tone and a crestfallen or hunched posture.
• His gaze will tend to avoid that of others and fixate on indeterminate points, reflecting a greater introversion.
• Your face will tend to lose firmness, with the lips and eyelids curving down, and the eyebrows meeting in the center of the brow and up.

On the other hand, you will have feelings of tightness in the chest, heaviness of the limbs, wet eyes and lack of appetite. All of this may or may not be accompanied by crying, lamentation, or silent tears.

Now, from a neurological point of view, sadness is associated with a decrease in serotonin in the brain, and an increase in neuronal activity in the temporal lobe, temporal cerebellum, vermis, misencephalon, putamen and caudate.

Consequences of sadness

Sadness is a painful emotion, but it has a specific purpose in our emotional life, which is to draw our attention to an emotionally important event. In other words, it allows us to deal with emotional pain, loss and grief, thus preventing these emotions from silently nesting within us and then expressing themselves in less controllable or unpredictable ways.

On the other hand, sadness (our own and also that of others) invites us to empathize with the pain of others, which is key for the construction of the social fabric of human beings, and can also have a cathartic role, that is, of emotional purging, which leaves us renewed and strengthened. For this reason, many people seek to undergo artificial experiences (movies, books, etc.) that induce temporary, manageable and superficial sadness.

In general, we must understand sadness as a moment of transition between an unsuccessful attitude or an invalid emotional panorama, and new ones. In that sense, it usually consists of an adaptive emotion, part of a change process.

How to face and alleviate sadness?

The first thing to know, when dealing with sadness, is that it is a natural and necessary emotion, which we should normally be able to go through without bringing more catastrophic consequences in our lives. That is, sadness is a natural reaction to a painful event, and there is no point in pretending to live a life totally free from sad feelings.

That said, there are natural reactions to sadness:

• Isolation, since we seek to withdraw from what caused us pain and “lick our wounds”, figuratively, alone or accompanied by those we consider part of our intimate and safe environment.
• Distraction, since many people prefer to avoid the pain they feel through recreational activities or induce them to a necessary joy. However, this distraction can only work for a time, and eventually the sadness will have to be dealt with, whether we want to or not. People unable to do so run the risk of falling deeper later, or of taking irresponsible actions while fleeing from sadness.
• The vulnerability, that is, the expression of pain openly, inviting the compassion of other people and allowing the emotion to complete its cycle. Many times the only way to live sadness healthily is to cry.

If the sadness does not subside over time, but ends up worsening in depressions or other chronic conditions that impede vital functioning, the intervention of a specialist may be necessary (psychologists or psychotherapists) that provides additional psychic or medical tools, so that sadness completes its cycle and a new stage opens for the person.