Random waves of sadness

[Constellation89]

Hello
Sorry if this isn't in the correct place.
Just wanted to see if anyone else has these sudden sad feelings? It's as if everything is going well and I'm in the middle of something mundane like housework and suddenly I feel very sad and everything seems very bleak for a minute or two and I feel utterly lonely and isolated with my sadness. I have a tendency to overthink anyway and I'll suddenly remember an unpleasant event from my past and feel utterly terrible about it straight out of the blue, like the unpleasant memory of a particular event or incident flashes back to me. It fades after a few minutes but is horrible when it happens. I have anxiety anyway which magnifies this sadness. I know it sounds odd written down! Anyone else have anything like this?

@Welcometotheterrorzone I could have written that myself

@Scarby9 yes! Oh my gawd. Ever since I was a little kid, after swimming lessons at school, getting dried or walking home. Such a feeling of emptiness, horrible. I could never put a finger on why I felt like that. Maybe it is something to do with hydration?

It needs a name guys... the Bath Nasties?

I get this in the early hours of the morning. When I'm half awake. It's the most awful feeling of despair. I presumed it's because I'm menopausal.

Me! Especially now I'm working from home. I feel lonely and isolated and like nothing good will ever happen again. I think of all the death and wars and famine and wonder what the point of anything is (and then feel worse because my life is so lovely in comparison). Its overwhelming and all consuming and I have to try and do something to take myself away. Normally give my cat a cuddle.

What an interesting thread. I am the same, it will hit me when I'm driving usually. I end up in floods of tears feeling terribly anxious. Wave of sadness describes it perfectly, it's completely overwhelming. I have tried tracking these episodes, and they're totally random, at all times during my cycle. I'm desperately trying to work out what seems to trigger it but so far no luck. I am happily married, two beautiful children and have a job I enjoy. Good friends, not completely skint, some nice things! I exercise, I eat well, I take a multivitamin, I honestly don't know what is wrong with me but when it hits I feel almost suicidal.

Yes. I've tried explaining it but I can't. It hurts for a while, and then it's like it didn't happen. Worse when I'm very stressed. Suspect hormone related.

Yes! I used to get this when swimming (much younger don’t go now). I would get this odd sensation like I needed or wanted something and just feel really sad and tearful. It wasn’t hunger or thirst and I used to get so frustrated that I didn’t know what ‘it’was, that I needed?? Such a sad and lonley feeling too and I would have to take a minute to myself away from whoever I was with. It passed really quickly too, every time.

Gosh I thought it was just me! I get exactly that same feeling occasionally, but for me it is always when I first wake up. Cant blame anything for it though because at 64 I’m past everything mentioned already.

I've been through a tough time with various family estrangements (not taken likely, estranged after damage to me and my kids). For me, it's when I walk to work. It's like I'm rushing around and then I leave the house, and the fresh air hits and I just cry. Been doing it for around 4 years, started off doing it every day but now I probably cry walking to work once a month.

Yes, I get it too. A sudden wave of immense sadness. Sometimes absolutely without any reason, other times when in a room with lots of noisy people.
What's interesting is that for me water always helps to get out of it or at least lessens it. I need to put my hands under the tap (warm flowing water), get into the shower or the bath. My granny in times like this always said "go wash your hair", and it helps too. Or washing some delicate clothes in warm, soapy water by hand. Slowly.
That feeling is very weird, indeed. It comes so very suddenly and then slowly wanes away, and a bit later I may not even remember it. I think in German it is called Weltschmerz or something - like the sadness for/of the world.

Yes! It’s like suddenly the shield of normal life drops away and it’s like you’re experiencing a great void of horror and despair beyond.

Amazing. I used to get this occasionally as a small child. Just the odd few seconds that took my breath away. Never spoke of it as I didn’t know how to articulate the feeling.

Oddly enough, in the midst of teen angst and the innumerable horrors of adulthood, I don’t get it in the same way now.

Brahms Lullaby used to make me cry as a child. I just thought it was sad.

@ninecoronas
And yet I love the actual swimming! Or used to pre-Covid. But it was always an effort because I don't like the getting dried and dressed afterwards.
I thought being in a lovely warm atractive changing room might make the difference but I have even had that awful lost feeling hit me out of nowhere in a posh spa.
I am usually absolutely fine after a bath or non-swimming shower, however.
It is weird.

@twoblackdogs I'm not sure Weltscmerz is exactly the same. I've always thought that was a longer lasting feeling whereas, as others have said, this hits intensely out of nowhere but passes off quite swiftly, leaving me mostly feeling fine again (until the next time).
But briefly, it does feels Weltschmerzy, in that utterly bereft, abandoned, no hope type of feeling.
By the way, is your user name a double Churchillian reference (making you very familiar with Weltschmerz) or do you have a pair of furry friends?

@scarby9
I would say it's one of each :)