What is that sad feeling?

[AnonyMouseToday]

You know, a kind of weird empty feeling when you just feel sad for no reason? I have it now. My son gets it sometimes. There doesn't seem to be a reason. I'm not actually feeling sad about anything. It's more a physical sadness.

Do u ever experience this and know what I'm talking about? Could there b a physical reason? Like low iron or blood sugar or something?

I hate it!!

I get these pangs of sadness at random times too, sometimes! They’re more common when I’m depressed, but they are different, deeper and more fleeting than depression. They’re more like a 1-minute heaviness in my abdomen, like someone clutching my heart and then releasing their grip again all at once. Very odd. Not seemingly triggered by anything in particular.

Yes! Same- only lasts a minute or so but such a powerful sensation, I always likened it to homesickness that was not quite right but the closest emotion I could find to describe it.
So happy to have found this thread because I always thought I was the only one as well!
It's definitely less frequent these days

It's melancholia. Or existential angst.

I find really hearty exercise helps with it. Or some very gentle self-care - a deep bath and hair wash, a good book or feel good film. Doing something physical and mindless helps, like sorting laundry, clearing a cupboard, raking leaves. Or making something - anything from baking a cake to knitting a sweater.

I get it too - the loneliest feeling in the world and it passes in a minute or so. For me it's always connected to getting into a hot shower or bath - super strange. There were quite a few people who experience the same on a thread last year

Random waves of sadness www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4331024-Random-waves-of-sadness

I have found my people. I can agree to each one of u.

The Victorians believed in melancholy as an ailment.

Is it that kind of sad emptiness with a kind of longing behind it. No reason but just an existential sadness. Like a little chunks been taken from your centre?

I've always had that on occasion since I was a small child. I believe it's a kind of melancholy.

Yes - the weight of the world, melancholy/mild-depression. From things like the kids going back to school every September, so another year had gone.
Looking in my kitchen at various dishes/pans that will probably never be used again as my nest is almost empty. Overwhelming, constant grief since DDad died 3 years ago (well that just compounded all the other 'griefs') Post menopausal but with 'wavy' hormones.
I have friends with "all sorts" of issues big & small, but they just seem to carry everything differently - whereas I carry things like a "brick" of sadness & it hits me in varying degrees daily.
What I'm trying to say is, my problems are no different/worse/easier than others - but I can't remember a time when I DIDN'T feel the burden of 'everything'

Gosh yes I have this. It's about more than just feeling sad though isn't it? It's an empty desolate feeling of longing in the pit of your stomach, but you don't know what for. Comes over me without warning and disappears just as quickly but is awful. Often happens when I'm away, and otherwise having a great time. Very odd, must be hormonal I think,

I’ve had this since being a child. I always got it incredibly strongly at the moment my milk let down when I breastfed, so I assume it’s hormonal.

It is something I've experienced for as long as I can remember. It is like my whole body feels sad, like a sense of loss almost. I've felt it while on antidepressants that worked very well for me so I wouldn't say its linked to depression for me, or even mood as it comes from nowhere. A physical sadness is a good description.

In Portuguese there is a word for it - saudade. Saudade is a word for a sad state of intense longing for someone or something that is absent. Saudade is described as a kind of melancholy yearning.
Saudade is a feeling of longing, melancholy, desire, and nostalgia. It describes a deep emotional state; a yearning for a happiness that has passed, or perhaps never even existed.

I get exactly this - first night of a holiday! Smells different, looks different, everything is different and it makes me feel awful. I sometimes get the same feeling extremely strongly to the point I feel physically sick and paralysed - can't function. Just cry and cry.
Have never been able to explain it to anyone. I've also had it since I was a young child.

I'm convinced that the empty, sad feeling I get is linked to oxytocin, or oxytocin release.

I experienced it a lot when breastfeeding. And err, occasionally after sex.

I get it a day or two before my period, my daughter too . Definitely a hormonal thing I think.

I haven't read the full thread. Has anyone mentioned
"The Anatomy of Melancholy" by Robert Burton, I believe it's still in print since it was first published 400 years ago.

Oh my goodness I have had this since I was a child! I can remember lying in bed and physically feeling an emptiness. It's like an emotional hunger.

I really thought I was abnormal. I have had low level depression but it's very different from that. It's intense and fleeting, with no obvious cause, and I remember finding it almost fascinating as a kid. I've never told anyone about this before. I can't believe so many other people have it too!

@HarrietSchulenberg
Yes. The Romantic Poets revelled in this feeling, and there will never be another John Keats, for his understanding and beautiful descriptions of it. He could have had this feeling when he wrote Ode to Autumn. It's John Keats' birthday on 31st October.

I often used to feel like this when I was a child. It always happened if I was ill and had a day off school; come the evening time around 6 o clock when it was getting dark, this intense wave of melancholy would wash over me and it was always connected to the sound of a car's tyres on the road. We lived on a main street in the town and there was a set of traffic lights outside our house and to this day the sound of a car's tyres either starting to move or slowing down, especially on a wet road can bring me back to my childhood home, and the feelings of emptiness and loneliness which I felt knowing that the rest of my family were downstairs living their normal lives while I had been in my room all day, ill and cut off from the rest of the world.

A bit of an aside but on the subject of Keats' Ode on Melancholy, I always smirk when I picture him imprisoning his mistress' soft hand while she's showing some rich anger, and letting her rave while he fed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes. I do wonder why she was so angry and how she took it when she was ranting at him and he just grasped her hand and stared at her gormlessly. I imagine she possibly clocked him one out of sheer frustration.
Still love the poem, though.

Yes. I recognise this. I can have a lovely day and then get hit out of the blue. PPs Melancholy descriptions are close but it's hard to really put into words. Sadness. Loneliness. Heartache.

Yes, I get this regularly and I have since childhood.

I think the “Antiques Roadshow” Sunday night sadness feeling is a subset of it, but slightly different from the main episodes as there is an apparent logical cause.

I really recognise PPs saying they get it when it goes dark outside and they have the lights on and the curtains open - this is one of the triggers for me too. I also feel it when I’m at somebody’s house where they have very dim lighting- I absolutely hate it and it makes me feel awful.

For some reason I also get it nearly every time I go to the cinema.

I get it at loads of other random times as well. I often experience tinnitus at the same time and that has been since childhood as well.

I am prone to have depression, so I have always thought it must be linked.

I used to get it a lot but not so much anymore.
I never found a cause but would be interested to know if there is one.

Yes yes yes. It’s so comforting to read about other people experiencing the same

I just remembered we all had it after going to a festival for the weekend. For a few days afterwards it felt like a hangover but wasn't.