Why melancholy is useful and why you shouldn’t fight it

Some may think that this is a character trait and should not be given special attention to this problem. But this is a fundamentally erroneous opinion, because such behavior can be a sign of a serious illness, which, if ignored, can lead to dire consequences.

However, this does not mean that any sad passerby is a potentially sick person. There is a huge difference between normal and pathological sadness, which is not always noticed by those around you. The second category includes melancholy, which is increasingly diagnosed in the modern generation (especially in adolescence). It is extremely important to identify these disorders in a timely manner, as such an approach can save lives.

Melancholy: what is it in psychology

There is a specific concept of what melancholy is, the definition of which sounds like a mental disorder. Accompanied by apathy, loss of interest in life and complete loss of strength. If this disease has really affected a person, he needs qualified help.

According to experts, melancholy is in psychology both a property of temperament and the result of a mental disorder. It is often associated with the type of temperament and characteristics of a person. Some individuals tend to exaggerate failures, and they easily fall into despondency and blues at the slightest reason, refusing active work. Such people are highly emotional and very vulnerable.

How to recognize a person suffering from melancholy

So, what was previously called melancholy in the clinical sense is now commonly called depression.

Accordingly, the symptoms characteristic of this condition can be identified

Constantly low mood, melancholy and despondency without any external reason. A person may even harbor thoughts of suicide.
Low self-esteem, self-flagellation, feeling of guilt for everything that happens.
Constant drowsiness, desire to sleep; It is difficult for such a person to wake up in the morning.
Indifference to everything around, lack of interest in current events.
Anhedonia, that is, the loss of the ability to derive pleasure from what was previously of interest.
The need for physiological satisfaction of the body is often reduced; in particular, I don’t feel like eating.
“Frustration”, that is, fixation on things that previously seemed insignificant.
Motor retardation.
Decreased memory and attention; It is difficult for a person to concentrate on something specific, and it is also difficult to reproduce old information and assimilate new information.

In previous editions of the International Classification of Diseases, two types of melancholia were distinguished. The first is “without an established cause”; all people can be susceptible to this condition. The second is related to aging.

What does black melancholy mean?

This term was in use even before the emergence of modern psychology, so let's look at the concept of black melancholy, what it is according to the Greek aesculapians and healers of past centuries. Literally, black melancholy is black bile that poisons the body. In the era of alchemists, it was generally believed that all diseases arise from an imbalance of four fluids in the body, one of which is bile. Its release causes a gloomy mood.

▪️Later, this term began to be actively used in works of art, and it was often found even among famous classics of past centuries. At that time, it meant melancholy, hopelessness, sadness, loss of mental strength and, as a result, physical illness. This “dark insanity” happened because of unhappy love and other mental torments.

▪️Black melancholy is an extreme degree of despondency that occurred when a person was ready to give up his life. Attacks of spleen, sadness and sadness were in the order of things and were considered a milder degree of mental illness.

▪️Wealthy patients were treated by sending them to resorts and bringing them “out into the world.” People from the lower strata of the population were deprived of this privilege; their entire existence was occupied by the struggle for survival and hard work. For serfs and servants, a similar illness was treated with rods.

What is this?

This term has several interpretations, each of which is used in medical practice. This:

If we look at melancholy from a temperamental perspective, then it is an innate feature of worldview and adaptation to society. Such persons are called melancholic. They are typical introverts (prefer to spend time alone) with a weak nervous system. They are characterized by frequent self-immersion and deep experience of what is happening.
Speaking about the psychological and psychiatric field, depression is a formidable disease that requires immediate medical intervention.

The ancient Greek dictionary defines this concept as “black bile.” The great Hippocrates said: “People who have a lot of this liquid are prone to melancholy and gloom. They are sensitive to the world around them, take everything to heart and often cry.”

What does pseudomelancholy mean?

The term pseudomelancholia usually refers to a mental disorder associated with physical changes in the brain. Most often it means senile pseudomelancholy.

It is accompanied by gradual degradation of personality. Memory and intelligence deteriorate, personality traits change, attacks of unreasonable anxiety appear, and problems arise with orientation in space and time. At the same time, consciousness remains intact. This disease cannot be treated; its development can only be slowed down.

The disorder is most often associated with a genetic predisposition and manifests itself in old age. External circumstances only provoke a dormant illness or aggravate its course. The condition develops slowly, gradually, but steadily leading to a deep breakdown of the psyche, complete dementia.

Melancholy and depression: is there a difference?

As already mentioned, today there is no difference between these concepts. Except that “depression” is the official scientific name for this disorder, and “melancholy” is a colloquial one.

In living speech, however, the concept of “melancholy” continues to be used in a broader sense, which often gives rise to confusion. Melancholy affects both heroes of literary works, simply sensitive people, and those who have been given a clear diagnosis of depression. Melancholy has been romanticized in world culture, as a result of which many people do not understand that behind this “noble melancholy” there may be a serious illness hidden.

It is often said that melancholy is generated by boredom, dullness and joylessness of the world around us. This mental state develops into a deep philosophical problem that people think about almost from adolescence. Someone says that boredom and a melancholic state are a sign of our time, when a person often finds himself out of work. But if you plunge into the literature, it becomes clear that such sentiments existed in society long before the advent of “post-industrial society.” A melancholic mood was characteristic of the general’s wife’s daughters in Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot”; it accompanied all of Lermontov’s work, and Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin also suffered from it. “Gloomy madness” was one of the main themes in the works of the Silver Age, for which this literary era (and its European analogue) was often called decadence, that is, “decline.”

Such melancholy motives and the corresponding mood of creative figures, their heroes and the public are not some random manifestations of character. Such a pronounced “mass depression” is a reflection of the grandiose events that occurred during their lives. A widespread melancholy mood was not only observed at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; something similar was typical, for example, of the late Renaissance, when one after another the high ideals in which the Renaissance figures believed collapsed. The ancient world experienced a similar phenomenon in the last years of its existence, which was reflected in the general cultural decline, revaluation of values, gloomy thoughts, anticipation of the imminent “end of the world” and the spread of a new religion - Christianity. Something similar is observed in our time, starting from the second half of the twentieth century: melancholy and decadent motives accompany the culture of postmodernism.

Therefore, the mentioned term differs significantly from its clinical counterpart - “depression”. The external content is, so to speak, the same, but the deep meaning is completely different.

It is sometimes said that a melancholic mood occurs when any suffering or experience becomes pleasant. This romantic definition, despite its apparent naivety, is not without some meaning. Only an insensitive person can avoid suffering at all; in a certain sense, suffering and sad experiences are a form of knowledge of the world and self-knowledge. This is a reaction to some significant failures and at the same time a search for new ways to solve problems. There is a point of view that the melancholic state is a kind of protective reaction of the body, which is designed, in particular, to relieve a person from the fear of death.

If we talk about melancholic people, many of them admit that they like their state of mind, even if its components are sadness and melancholy. Only in these moments do they feel like real individuals. Sadness becomes “light” for them, to which they devote their creativity. It is customary to admire such people and such feelings, and their works become real masterpieces.

Perhaps this is another difference between the melancholic state and clinical depression. With depression, a person is driven only by negative feelings, he doesn’t want anything and doesn’t strive for anything. A person experiencing a melancholic state is more inclined to escape from problems and adversity into some other reality, to create or “contemplate” another world, which subsequently often becomes public knowledge. Such a person tends to clearly distinguish between the external world and the internal world; the first may not cause him much interest, but he can immerse himself in the second. Perhaps because of this, many melancholic people are interested in nature. Among them are not only poets inspired by the beauty of nature (their list includes such personalities as Sergei Yesenin, Mikhail Lermontov and others), but also such serious scientists as Charles Darwin, who devoted his entire life to the study of nature and its laws.

Causes of melancholy

► At the moment, there is no clear definition of the specific reasons why a melancholic state occurs. The trigger can be anything, any factor, including exhaustion of the nervous system and depression of brain function.

► The only thing that experts have been able to identify and prove is that melancholy arises and develops as a result of emotional experiences, strong emotional outbursts, when a person has been subject to a depressed state for a long time. Sometimes a person is so consumed by a decadent mood that he begins to think about taking his own life. Awareness of one's inferiority and insignificance completely obscures an adequate perception of reality.

However, there is a list of factors that can trigger the appearance of melancholy:

☑️ Congenital predisposition. If parents are subject to bouts of melancholy, then the child is also highly likely to inherit this property. It is also believed that the character of the unborn baby is influenced by the depressed mood of the mother. Research in this area is carried out by specialists in perinatal psychology.

☑️ Predisposition to depression. Individuals suffering from such conditions are immersed in a gloomy state of mind most of the time. This is one of the signs of melancholy. Such people often devote a lot of time to thinking about their own insignificance and suicide.

☑️ Mental disorders. Mental illnesses are often accompanied by attacks of black melancholy. For example, schizophrenics often avoid communication and are in a gloomy mood.

☑️ A serious long-term illness exhausts a person, drains him emotionally and physically. Suffering from an illness, he loses faith in his strength and in medicine. It seems that recovery will never come and he is doomed to a tedious struggle with the disease for the rest of his life. Such a depressed state can provoke the appearance of melancholy.

☑️ Features of age. It is generally accepted that with the number of years lived and the loss of former physical activity, people become vulnerable to melancholy and sadness. Nostalgia for a bygone youth rarely has a positive emotional connotation, which is reflected in the mood. Yes, older people are more likely to suffer from melancholy than young men and women, but when it comes to mental illness, it is not necessarily related to the number of years lived. Even children can become victims of the disease.

☑️ Fears and phobias. Suspicious people, prone to fears and obsessive phobias, are prone to melancholic states. It is difficult for them to find inner harmony and achieve emotional balance. Fear paralyzes and deprives you of the feeling of freedom and enjoyment of life.

☑️ Low self-esteem. An inferiority complex, doubt in one's own strengths and capabilities do not contribute to a positive attitude. Constant comparison with others not in your favor is a short and direct path to the development of melancholy.

☑️ Emotional turmoil, emotional experiences. These factors can instantly pull the rug out from under one’s feet and abruptly plunge a person into a depressed state.

☑️ Alcohol, gaming, drug addiction. Addictions ultimately lead to depression. At the moment of taking a stimulant or immersing yourself in a game, the world seems bright and life seems rich. People around are friendly and positive. When the effect of the taken dose wears off, harsh reality hits the person and plunges him into the abyss of despair.

How to treat melancholy

This disease has been studied for many centuries. Previously, she was treated with such inhumane methods as electric shock and bloodletting. Fortunately, modern medicine has achieved unprecedented heights, thanks to which these barbaric healing techniques have become a thing of the distant past. The result of this development can be observed in our clinic. This is a vivid example of a high level of professionalism and possession of effective therapeutic techniques in the field of psychology and psychiatry.

Many people mistakenly believe that this depressive disorder can be dealt with on their own or with the help of pills. But this is a fatal mistake that can lead to a worsening of the current condition. To achieve the desired result, an integrated approach is required, which includes not only taking medications, but also qualified moral support from a psychologist. Therefore, it is extremely important to make an appointment with a psychotherapist who can find an individual approach to any client.

There are a number of main principles that underlie the treatment of melancholic people. This:

You don't need to rely solely on medications
. Of course, drugs can suppress symptoms, but they are not able to cure a person. However, sometimes a similar therapeutic effect can be achieved by changing your lifestyle. Preference is given to physical exercise and sports. The main advantage of these methods is the absence of such effects.
Social support.
It is quite difficult for introverts to communicate and, even more so, to share their emotional experiences with someone. But improving connections with others helps overcome melancholic manifestations. There is no need to be shy about talking to friends or family, as they can provide support. You can also attend specially organized trainings designed for people with such problems.
Food and relaxation.
These vital necessities have a significant influence on the formation of our feelings. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure a balanced and rational diet, as well as daily sleep lasting from 7 to 9 hours. This will help get rid of increased irritability, fatigue, fatigue and sadness.
Psychological help.
A qualified doctor helps you change your thinking pattern and improve your coping skills, which helps you develop an adaptation to conflict and stress resolution. With its help, it is possible to change behavior and move away from permissive thoughts or actions.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is especially popular among doctors around the world. The principle of its work is based on the fact that our consciousness (as we think) and actions can affect our well-being. It consists of regular visits to a personal psychotherapist and strict implementation of all his recommendations. In these sessions, the therapist teaches the client to think rationally and helps change negative or unhelpful thought patterns and reactions to a more realistic, joyful approach.

Symptoms of melancholy

According to experts, women are most often susceptible to mental illness in middle age. Attacks of melancholy occur at the age of 40-55, while men suffer from them ten years later. Women, due to their emotionality, have much brighter and stronger experiences. External signs that can reveal a person’s condition: dry skin, dilated pupils, indigestion, sudden weight loss.

Melancholic mood can also be diagnosed by external manifestations, so-called symptoms:

✔️ Negative attitude. A bad mood haunts a person from day to day, and he ceases to feel the joy of life. He is focused on bad news, events, memories and loses the ability to communicate normally with others.

✔️ Lack of energy, apathy. Outwardly, this is expressed as indifference. Any action is performed through force, a person is overcome by laziness and lethargy.

✔️ The feeling of guilt puts pressure on the individual and intensifies every day. Suffering from attacks of melancholy, its victim blames himself for almost all the troubles of the world and indulges in painful self-blame, even for those events to which he has nothing to do.

✔️ Slow reactions prevent you from performing any actions, even everyday tasks. Powerlessness and lack of will take possession of a person, resulting in chronic fatigue, which is also a symptom of this nervous disorder.

What is postpartum melancholy - how to cope with it?

Often, women experience mood swings in the first days after childbirth, and may also experience sentimentality and irritability. Of course, the birth of a baby is always a joy and no one expects a bad mood, but it does happen. Melancholy appears. At the same time, doctors even recognize this as a normal condition.

Unrest usually occurs due to:

Worries about the child's health, even if everything is fine
Anxiety
Difficulty concentrating on certain things
Fatigue and resulting insomnia
The desire to cry, although there is no reason to do so

However, the main reason for the development of melancholy is hormonal changes. They begin around the second to fourth day after birth. Pregnancy hormones gradually leave the body and milk begins to be actively produced. By the way, this may affect your appetite. Emotions are also placed by others. First of all, there is a sense of responsibility. Some people take it normally, but for some women it puts a lot of pressure on the psyche.

Some women realize that they have become mothers only after being discharged from the hospital. Despite the fact that the role of a mother is pleasant, no one is immune from feelings of anxiety. Despite everything, you should not be afraid of melancholy after childbirth. It goes away on its own within a few days. In general, the hardest time is 4-5 days after birth.

You don't need to do anything special. It's enough to just get more rest. To do this, ask your loved ones for help. If after 2-3 weeks you still have not returned to normal, then you may be developing postpartum depression. In this case, you will have to go to professionals so that they can help cope with the problem.

The difference between melancholy and depression

When delving deeper into the topic, the question arises: how does a melancholic state differ from depression? An interesting fact is that these words used to be synonyms, just one name was replaced by another. However, a little later, the situation changed and depressive states became more severe mental disorders, and the term melancholy began to mean a bad mood or a property inherent in certain temperaments.

In modern psychology, depression is classified as a temporary, albeit severe, and sometimes life-threatening condition, and melancholy is considered a character trait (temperament type - melancholic) of pessimistic people. However, unlike depression, this mild disorder does not prevent them from living, being in a bad mood most of the time.

Diagnosis of melancholy

To diagnose a depressive disorder, it is necessary to have clinical criteria, measure CBC, TSH electrolytes and some other laboratory tests. To confirm the diagnosis, the clinical picture described above must be present (the symptom complex must persist for several months). Preceding events that caused or could cause this pathological condition are also identified.

Brief questionnaires have been developed and are actively used for screening. They are used to clarify some depressive symptoms, but cannot be used to confirm the diagnosis (survey data is insufficient). However, a series of yes or no questions will help confirm that the patient meets the criteria for major depression.

The degree of severity is determined by the severity of anxiety, the duration of the bright clinic, as well as physical, social and work maladjustment. In this case, the attending physician talks about future plans, desire to harm oneself, presence of thoughts or attempts to commit suicide. Based on these data, it is possible to assess the severity of the current disease, make a further prognosis and select the optimal therapy.

How to get rid of melancholy

If mental disorder and depressed mood have not yet developed into depression, it can be corrected. Treatment of melancholy can be done on your own. However, if a person is in a state of despondency, then, as a rule, he does not have the strength to change anything. Therefore, such people need the participation of loved ones and help from them.

Methods that work if a person is committed to healing:

Communication with people: friends, like-minded people.

Sports, recreational gymnastics, yoga, fitness, Pilates, stretching, athletics.

Women are cheered up by shopping.

Diversity in cultural life - reading books, visiting theaters, watching films, participating in the cultural life of society, turning to religion.

Conversations with friends, heart-to-heart conversations with a partner, variety in the intimate sphere.

❗️Unfortunately, once in the spotlight, some people become dependent on the participation of others and begin to unknowingly speculate on it. Therefore, help should be dosed and in moderation. There is no need to completely immerse yourself in the problems of a melancholic person and try to change his life, make him happy. Some people with such a temperament simply cannot exist without a bit of romantic sadness in the drabness of everyday life.

Carolina Korableva

About the author: Hello! I am Karolina Korableva. I live in the Moscow region, in the city of Odintsovo. I love life and people. I try to be realistic and optimistic in life. What I value in people is their ability to behave. I am interested in psychology, in particular conflictology. Graduated from RGSU, Faculty of Occupational Psychology and Special Psychology.

How to cope with melancholy on your own: treatment, recommendations

Treatment of Melancholia
Melancholy, in simple words, is a mood disorder. Today, medicine can offer many tools to cope with mood disorders. But how voluminous they will be depends on the patient and his diagnosis. In this case, the main thing is not to start the process. If you make efforts from the very beginning, you can easily cope with all problems.

Experts do not use medications very often. This usually happens when complex changes have occurred in the body. This happens with the development of genetic diseases, as well as hormonal changes. Medications prescribed by a psychiatrist help correct mood. Self-treatment in this case is inappropriate.

So, the doctor uses:

Antidepressants that have a stimulating or sedative effect.
Tranquilizers. As a rule, these are drugs that do not cause a hypnotic effect.
Sedatives of plant origin are the simplest remedies, for example, valerian, mint, motherwort.
Amino acids. These include glycine and taurine.
Homeopathic medicines. This could be, for example, tenoten.

It is important to understand that antidepressants and tranquilizers have the most pronounced effect. They are accepted by courses. For example, antidepressants require 4-6 months, and tranquilizers are prescribed in case of severe disorders or panic attacks. This is due to the fact that they are addictive. The safest thing in this case is homeopathy or herbal remedies. However, their effectiveness may not be enough.

Most often, specialists use psychotherapeutic influence. They set the patient up to solve personal problems. Sessions can be conducted individually or in groups. An excellent effect can be obtained using a method such as positive affirmations, that is, when certain statements are regularly spoken. Thanks to psychotherapy, the patient copes with problems and reacts to them correctly. To get good results, sessions must be attended regularly.

It also happens that to get rid of melancholy it is enough to change your lifestyle. For example, this could be changing your diet, organizing your day, frequent walks and exercise.

New experiences can further improve your condition. This could be traveling to new places, reading interesting books. Even watching movies or music improves the condition. Dancing classes have a particularly good effect. In other words, it is important to find something that will bring you pleasure.

Features of the fight against melancholy

Inpatient treatment for melancholia is not always required. A slight blues, when sad thoughts overwhelm you, just needs to be shaken out. You just have to follow some simple advice.

Independent ways to deal with melancholy

There are many ways to get rid of melancholy on your own.
Some of them are more suitable for women due to their character, while others are truly masculine. But there is hardly a clear gradation between them. In the end, it’s up to everyone to do what they like. How to deal with melancholy on your own:

The main thing is to try to be in public. It is much easier to get rid of your blues among them than in “proud” isolation. It is good for women to do aerobics, and for men to play volleyball or football. I think anyone can do this. Shopping is also a great way to unwind.
When you don’t want to play sports, you can visit the library, cinema or theater. At worst, read a book at home, watch TV or sit at a crossword puzzle. It's a good idea to start cleaning, it will keep your mind busy.
One should not forget about sensual pleasures. Intimacy here, of course, comes first. However, good company, great conversation and a treat are also a great way to take your mind off sadness. Just don’t indulge in drinking or, God forbid, drugs. This is the downside of a pleasant pastime; it will only aggravate the blues and create new problems.
A great way to get rid of melancholy is to support those who are feeling very bad. “Help others, and you will be rewarded a hundredfold.” Absolutely right! Whoever helps those in need helps himself. Such a person begins to think positively, and this dispels sadness and melancholy.
The church will help you get rid of melancholy. She is a collective psychologist. Many people trust God with their sorrows and find peace in their souls through prayer. But this is advice for people who believe that they came into this world by God’s providence.

It is important to know! It is quite possible to get rid of melancholy on your own, the only important thing is to really want it.

Definition of the concept

Every person has a bad mood, some experience it occasionally and for a fairly short period of time, while others are in a depressed state most of the time. Just yesterday you loved the whole world and it seemed that all your endeavors would succeed on the first try, but today you cannot tear yourself away from the pillow and the surrounding reality seems shrouded in a light gray haze. Sound familiar? It is this condition that is commonly called melancholy.

Terminology. Melancholy is a mental illness that is accompanied by a complete loss of strength and apathy.

Based on the opinion of psychologists, melancholy is directly related to the type of temperament and individual personality characteristics. Such people, even due to the slightest failure, can become depressed and refuse further active actions. Individuals susceptible to melancholy are characterized by increased emotional instability and vulnerability.

However, some specialists in the field of psychiatry are deeply convinced that melancholia is a mental illness that requires mandatory correction.

Melancholy in art

Among the works of art there are books and films that describe characters suffering from melancholy. Usually these are young characters with a constant depressed mood and a very sensitive mental organization. For example, there is a film of the same name “Melancholia”, which tells about the death of the Earth and the experiences of two sisters about this. Among the books, one can highlight “The Anatomy of Melancholy” by Robert Burton. In it, the author described everything that is known about this condition: causes, symptoms, types. Another book worth checking out is A Cure for Melancholy by Ray Bradbury.

“Melancholy occurs not only in adults, but also in adolescents. This condition can begin to develop at 11-12 years of age.”

An example of a melancholy person is Captain Green from the cartoon “The Secret of the Third Planet.” Every time he repeats the phrase: “this will not end well.” However, he is not depressed, he lives normally and travels on a spaceship. However, he views the world through the negative lens of a bad mood.

Freud's scientific explanation

Even the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, at the stage of his therapeutic and research activities, tried to give a specific description of the painful condition. He reflected his thoughts in correspondence with Dr. Fliess. He correlated melancholy with psychological sexual tension. He clarified the essence of the disease in his work “Mourning and Melancholy.”

In his understanding, a person suffering from this illness constantly demonstrates a decrease in self-esteem. He ceases to respect and perceive himself as a person, he loses interest in everything that happens. A bad and even painful mood is observed, all feelings are inhibited, the patient seems to be waiting for punishment.

In the doctor's description, melancholy is self-torture. The patient considers himself disgusting, immoral, incapable of performing reasonable actions. He reproaches and humiliates himself in front of others, extends self-criticism to the past. The picture of such insanity is complemented by refusal of food and insomnia.

Signs of melancholy

As a rule, the signs of melancholy are adjacent to ordinary depression. But there are a number of typical signs that are unique to this psychological disorder, for example:

Excessively frequent mood changes. For example, if a person suffers from hyperactivity and cannot sit idle for a minute, then this behavior is quite logical and the change in mood is associated with activity and work. But if your mood changes 5 times a minute, then you should consult a psychologist to establish a diagnosis of melancholy or a number of other reasons;
Constant sleepiness. When a person reacts with drowsiness to a change in weather or a disrupted routine, that’s one thing. It’s completely different when a person, after a full night’s sleep, feels tired after a couple of hours, even if he drinks coffee or strong tea, the desire to sleep does not decrease;
Inhibition of actions and poor memory , as well as lack of concentration, may well become signs of melancholy. It is worth paying attention to the degree of manifestation of this type of symptom; it is likely that in this case a more serious problem is hidden behind melancholy.