Sadness is a healthy and normal emotional response to a realistic happening such as loss, death of a loved one, or disappointment. Depression is not a healthy response it is an illness and is much more deeply felt and lingers much longer than sadness. Either sadness or depression can result from death of a loved one. For example, if someone you lose someone you love and your thoughts are “I feel so bad that he/she died. I am going to miss her/him so much.” Such thoughts would bring on feelings of sadness. If the same situation occurred and you thought “Oh, my God! What am I going to do? I’ll never have anyone to love again.” These thoughts would generate depression. In the first case, the thoughts are not distorted and are accurate compared to reality hence the normal feeling of sadness. In the second case, the thoughts are distorted and they would generate depression. So, sadness does not emerge from distorted thinking, depression emerges from distorted thinking.


Depression is a response from distorted thoughts about some event that may or may not be negative.

Here is another example; you read a letter informing you that did not get into the college of your choice. The event is experienced and interpreted by the person in the form of thought, that is, those words in that letter are interpreted by you and you now know and have thoughts about not being accepted, “I am so disappointed I didn’t get into that college”.

You feel sad and dejected for a short time but you soon come out of the sadness. Your thought is true and not distorted – you did not get accepted to that college. In contrast, a distorted thought interpretation from reading that letter might be: “They did not accept me because I am stupid and not worthy to go to that college. I’ll never get into any college”.