Unhappiness, or sadness, is integral to the human experience.

Although it’s probably not one of our favourite feelings, it’s still a valuable emotion, and it’s more than ok to be sad at times.

While it might be uncomfortable, letting sadness in can even come with many benefits.

Let’s discuss dealing with unhappiness.

Dealing With Unhappiness

How Can Unhappiness Be Beneficial?

Unhappiness, or sadness, can actually be very motivating for us.

Happiness signals to us that we are in a safe, familiar situation, and that little effort is needed to change much of anything.

Sadness, on the other hand, operates like a mild alarm signal, triggering more effort and motivation to deal with our challenges.

When we reach a low mood, an alarm goes off. We feel something is wrong. As mentioned, that can be used as a great motivator to act.

Our society focuses on happiness and treats unhappiness as an unnecessary or useless feeling. But sadness can slow us down, and make us really think about our life, our feelings and the people around us.

A sad mood will make us more persistent if we appreciate the importance of turning our low mood into something positive.

Is it OK To Not Be Happy In Life?

Yes, it’s totally normal to not feel happy at times even when life is going well. We all experience highs and lows in life, and happiness isn’t a constant emotion or state of mind.

It can take time, effort, and self-reflection to understand what brings us true contentment.

What Causes Deep Unhappiness?

Unhappiness is usually caused by a combination of stress, anger, insecurity, unhealed trauma, frustration, low self-esteem, poor health, lack of connection, or lack of life purpose.

What Would Happen If We Never Felt Sadness?

For the most part, we don’t choose our emotions.

If we didn’t have sadness, we would just feel nothing when something sad happened.

Likewise, we would also feel nothing when something happy happened. And without the feeling of sadness, you would have nothing to compare a happy situation to.

Why Is It Easier To Be Sad Than Happy?

Research shows that negative emotions transmit more rapidly when compared with positive ones.

It comes down from our evolutionary past when such awareness of other people’s emotions was linked directly to survival.

Did Ancient People Have Depression?

The pressures of survival and reproduction were high back then.  Evolutionary psychologists believe that early humans did experience mental health issues like depression and anxiety. 

Today we don’t experience the same pressures that early humans did, but we may still have a similar set of emotional issues to deal with.

What’s The Difference Between Depression And Just Being Unhappy?

Depression is a clinical illness, while unhappiness is a state of mind.

How Can I Enjoy Life Again?

• Develop gratitude.
• Exercise. 
• Find a reason to laugh.
• Find out what really makes you tick.
• Nurture positive relationships.
• Get out and meet people.
• Create a bucket list.
• Set goals for yourself.

Is It Normal To Be Unhappy Most Of The Time?

We all feel down from time to time, and if it’s in response to a particular situation, that’s normal.

However, when people feel unhappy much of the time, that can point to a bigger problem.

How Do You Know If You’re Deeply Unhappy?

We may feel beaten down by the challenges we face in our life.

We might suffer from a variety of vague, hard-to-diagnose physical symptoms, such as fatigue, chronic pain, weight gain or loss, insomnia, skin disorders, or gastrointestinal symptoms.

We might struggle with being able to accept love.

What Are The Main Symptoms Of Depression?

• Feeling sad, tearful, empty, or hopeless.
• Having angry outbursts, irritability, or frustration over small matters.
• Loss of interest or pleasure in most normal activities, such as sex, hobbies, or sports.
• Experiencing sleep disturbances, including insomnia, or sleeping too much.

How Long Does Unhappiness Last?

Often depression symptoms will last for only a few weeks. For some people though, untreated depression could last months or even years.

Regardless of how long you’ve experienced depression, the condition can be treatable.  Seeking the support of a professional often helps symptoms resolve much sooner.

What Are The Most Common Behaviours That Lead To Unhappiness?

• Staying indoors.
• Lack of exercise.
• Poor nutrition. 
• Isolating yourself.
• Excessive drinking and drugs.
• Not sleeping enough and not sleeping regularly.
• Focusing on negative past and future events.

What To Do If Nothing Makes You Happy

• Change your mindset.
• Get some exercise.
• Develop healthy habits.
• Practice meditation
• Try Yoga.
• End rumination and try problem solving.
• Try to reconnect with joy.
• Consider professional help.

How Do I Overcome Being Unhappy?

• Find a positive distraction.
• Journal.
• Practice gratitude.
• Treat yourself like a friend.
• Engage in something creative.

Final Thoughts

This topic is a hard one to deal with.  If you’re struggling, I can definitely understand the multiple layers of this issue, understand you’re not alone.

It can be hard to reach out, when sometimes even our friends and loved ones will not understand the depths of what we may be going through.  We may often get advice from them such as “just get over it” or “you don’t have it that bad”, the list of unhelpful advice is endless.

You may even have family get angry at you for bringing them down.

While it’s true that we’re each responsible for our own happiness, it can be a discouraging feeling. 

Remember, your friends or family may indeed be going through their own issues around unhappiness, and most importantly they are probably not professional therapists so don’t let anyone else’s words affect you negatively.

If you are the one that someone is confiding in, the best action is to just be as good of a listener as possible.  You may offer helpful suggestions, but mostly avoid trying to solve their issues for them.

Hopefully, they’ll find a way to make important changes in their lives that will serve them better over time.

If you are seriously struggling with depression, please consider reaching out to a medical professional.

Thank you for reading, please comment or follow the links.

Sources and other reading:

Ways You Are Causing Your Own Unhappiness

A Buddhist View Of Happiness

How To Be Happy Again

The Benefits Of Journaling

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