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Many people thinkdepressionis just a deep sadness that doesn’t go away for a while. That’s not the whole story, however. Depression is more complicated than that.

That’s why many people who have depression don’t recognize it as such. And it’s why people often show disbelief when they learnsomeone has depression.

But just because you don’t feel sad or someone says, “But you don’t seem depressed,” doesn’t mean you aren’t. Everyone experiences and displays depression in their own way.

Individuals with depression do share some common emotional experiences, however. Learning to identify your emotions can be the first step in figuring out how to respond to them in a healthy way.

Common Emotions Experienced During Depression

While everyone’s experience with depression is a little different, some emotions during depression are fairlycommon symptoms:

Why Identifying Your Feelings Helps

Feelings are complex. Simply putting a name to them can help your brain make more sense of what is going on.

A 2018 study found talking about feelings, writing about them, or simply picking a feeling after reviewing a list instantly reduced people’s distress. Naming feelings decreased the duration and intensity of uncomfortable emotions.

It may not be helpful to just identify what you’re feeling as depression. It may be more beneficial to identify more specific emotions that you’re going through—which are likely to shift and vary quite often.

If you aren’t used to identifying your feelings, it will take some practice. But there are several things you can do to get better at figuring out how you’re feeling.

Keep in mind that you are likely to feel more than one emotion at a time. And sometimes, those emotions might feel conflicting.

You might be both happy and sad. Or, you might feel anxious and excited. It’s normal to experience all types of emotions simultaneously. But naming your feelings can help you sort those things out a bit and help your brain make a little more sense of what’s going on.

Get Advice From the The Verywell Mind Podcast

A Word From Verywell

If you’re struggling to identify your feelings, you’re not alone. It’s tough to do—and depression makes it even more difficult to name your emotions.

A mental health professional can help you.A therapistcan assist you in figuring outyour complex emotional state as you cope with depression.

Healthy Coping Skills for Uncomfortable Emotions

1 SourceVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Torre JB, Lieberman MD. Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling as Implicit Emotion Regulation.Emotion Review. 2018;10(2):116-124. doi:10.1177/1754073917742706

1 Source

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Torre JB, Lieberman MD. Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling as Implicit Emotion Regulation.Emotion Review. 2018;10(2):116-124. doi:10.1177/1754073917742706

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Torre JB, Lieberman MD. Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling as Implicit Emotion Regulation.Emotion Review. 2018;10(2):116-124. doi:10.1177/1754073917742706

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