Feeling sad and unhappy is a natural emotion and happens to all of us often. Many situations can make us feel that way.

Let’s say every time you join onboard, that feeling of sadness surfaces. It might linger on throughout the contract for you and your loved ones. Some days, you may feel terrible for not being there when they need you or miss out on some occasions. Some days, your spouse, kids or parents are missing you and feeling bad/terrible for not having you around.

In another instance, you may not be able to bond with your new onboard team. They are good people, but you may lack a feeling of connection or feeling at ease with them. You may feel sad reminiscing about how alive and great you felt with previous co-workers and may wish to have that same ease and comfort with the new ones.

So how do we differentiate between feeling sad and feeling depressed. Feelings of sadness/unhappiness can be intense in some situations, but it may not be depression. In those intense situations, you may feel withdrawn, helpless, lost, disinterested and so on but with time and reflection, you get a grip and get back to your normal self. It is often short-lived and diminishes over time.

While with depression, your symptoms of withdrawal, helplessness, feeling lost, disinterestedness and so on is either steady or saturated. Time is not healing but intensifying the hurt.

Depression may have a range of symptoms which is constant or rapidly increasing:

  • Withdrawal tendencies
  • Loss of appetite
  • Fatigued
  • Poor or disturbed sleep quality
  • Disinterested in enjoyable activities
  • Crying spells
  • Feeling of hopelessness, guilt, agitation
  • Recurrent suicidal ideation, plans or/and attempts

One should seek expert help for experiencing sadness to learn the coping mechanism and improved self-awareness. But one must not delay seeking professional help if they are experiencing symptoms of depression, especially the last symptom, or if symptoms of sadness is increasing with each passing day.

For manageable sadness, some self-help measures can be taken to deal with that feeling:

  • Every emotion is a part of human existence. Allow yourself to experience and feel various emotion. Allow yourself to experience and feel sadness too
  • Take a moment with yourself and understand the process for yourself.
  • Understand your triggers and vulnerability. Reflect on your behavior in such moments with loved and dear ones
  • Talk to a friend or family, open up to the person who makes you feel safe and comfortable
  • Engage in some leisure activities or hobbies that help to alleviate mood
  • Take out some ‘ME’ Time to absorb the emotion and then gradually learn to let it go
  • Evaluate the possibility of slipping into depression - talk to a mental health expert


As mentioned in the beginning, feeling sadness is a natural process of life. We will face moments where we feel emotionally exposed, and so will the people around us. Sometimes, we know how to deal with it and sometimes, we are left perplexed. In our next issue, we cover how to manage responses when someone is feeling vulnerable

If you have any doubts or queries, please do not hesitate to seek professional advice from our in-house counsellor, Ms. Harshali Kotekar.