Sadness

Description

When I feel a certain type of sadness, I experience a sensation of tension in my throat, as if there were a lump. 


This initial tension does not seem to be a way of holding back a cry but rather the beginning of one. It appears, in some way, to trigger tears, though I can suppress them by applying counter-tension in my throat. 


In other types of sadness, where this lump does not form, tears do not appear either. 


Sometimes, sadness remains at this stage—for example, when I get emotional while watching a sad movie. 


In other cases, I also tend to tilt my head downward, as if it were being pulled down by the tension I feel in my chin, which also causes the corners of my mouth to droop further. 


My movements become slower and more lethargic, my body feels heavier, weaker, somewhat limp, and loses its muscular tone (as a "dead weight"). 


This sadness diminishes my motivation to act, making me prefer to stay quietly in my own corner or, at times, seek some form of emotional support. 


My mind fixates on melancholic perspectives of situations, which I revisit repeatedly.


Anguish

It could be considered a form of sadness, but it feels more despairing, blending with fear. 


In this case, I perceive a tightness in my chest, like something heavy pressing down on it. the body is tense. 


It may or may not be accompanied by tears; however, tears only appear when the sensation of a lump in the throat arises—that is, when the tightness in the chest shifts to this region. 


In such cases, it is a desperate sadness, expressed vigorously and with tears. 


On the other hand, tearless anguish may manifest through vocal and facial expressions similar to those of crying; however, these are expressed with greater intensity than in lethargic sadness.


Here, I make a distinction between crying and the act of shedding tears of sadness: crying can be manifested through the expressions mentioned above, without necessarily involving the shedding of tears. 


This does not mean that the tears are being repressed or that the suffering is any less genuine; on the contrary, It may indicate an even more intense suffering than crying with tears, or simply a different kind of suffering.



Empty

The sadness of emptiness creates a sensation of a "lukewarm void" in the area between the chest and abdomen, as if a lukewarm, oily substance had been released in that region or just a sensation of emptiness in the belly. 


Sometimes, this feeling of emptiness manifests as an almost total absence of sensations—or as a sensation that there is no sensation—, making it difficult to locate in any specific part of the body. 


In these cases, there are no tears. As a first kind of sadness described, this also diminishes my motivation to act. Thoughts, in general, revolve around a lack of meaning in life and my own existence.



Check here how I described the flow of sensations involved in emotions in general.


Check out these posts to understand the phenomenological approach used in providing these descriptions of experience: 1) What is Phenomenology; 2) Naturalization of Phenomenology; 3) Micro-Phenomenology; 4) Intersubjective Validation; 5) Embodied Cognition; 6) 4E

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