The key differences between sadness and depression.

Feeling blue. Down in the dumps. A lot of words can be used to describe sadness, but ‘depression‘ shouldn’t be one of them.

Although the term tends to be thrown around loosely — ‘Ugh, this weather is so depressing!’ ‘I’m so depressed after reading that book‘ — depression refers to a serious mental health condition.

It’s the leading cause of disability worldwide, and here in Australia an estimated one million people are living with depression in any one year.

While people with depression can and do experience sadness, the two words aren’t interchangeable. Feeling down every now and then can be unpleasant, but it isn’t the same as having a mood disorder.

In this video, Clinical Psychologist and Director of My Life Psychologists Tal Schlosser explains the key difference between sadness and depression and how to identify them.