How does your body react to Sadness?

Sadness is an instinctive emotion triggered by loss of someone, something, even the end of an era or empathy for another’s loss. Your body can shed tears and your soul be is as dark as night. 

Sadness is a sense of loss of something or someone or empathy for another’s loss. 

Sadness manifests itself in your body with tears, a tightness in your chest, low muscle tone and fatigue, changes in your voice and eating more tasty foods. In your brain, sadness is associated with increased activity of the right occipital lobe, the left insula, the left thalamus, the amygdala and the hippocampus.

In society today, there is pressure to avoid sadness, a focus on always being happy. Yet, sadness is an instinctive and natural emotion, which we will all feel at some point. It is part of life’s journey and effects your body in several ways. 

Sadness is not depression 

Sadness is not depression.  Everyday frustrations, loss of a loved one, life balance, financial difficulties can cause you to feel sad. When you feel extended periods of sadness, for weeks on end, with no particular stressors from your life, it is best to consult a doctor. 

Sadness causes a release of opioid brain chemicals

In your brain, sadness is associated with increased activity of the right occipital lobe, the left insula, the left thalamus, the amygdala and the hippocampus. Dr Vikaas Sohal, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco conducted a study with colleagues, reported in Live Science, on the brain recording electrical activity of the brain cells using intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) to look at bad mood. Previously, studies on emotion have looked at blood flow in the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The study, conducted on patients waiting for surgery, who already had electrodes in their brains (needed for EEG) found that there is increased electrical activity (or signalling) between the hippocampus (memory centre) and amygdala (emotion centre) when a bad mood was recorded. It is not clear if bad mood increases the signalling activity or vice versa. 

With sadness, which often comes with difficult times, levels of stress-related chemicals in your brain alter.  According to Alan Prossin, lead author of a study published in the journal of Molecular Psychiatry, and an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at UTHealth in Houston, levels of brain chemical opioids increase in order to offset your distress. Over time, these chemicals can trigger the release of IL-18, an inflammatory protein, which has been linked to cardio-vascular disease. 

Is shedding tears of sadness a self soothing behaviour? 

Sadness expresses itself in your body through tears, which happen instinctively. A study (Psychol. May 2014, Asmir Gračanin, Lauren M. Bylsma, Ad J. J. M. Vingerhoets) looked at how tears activate your parasympathetic (DEF)nervous system (responsible for the resting state of the body) and soothe you.  Some research also indicates that tears may be a way of releasing the stress hormone cortisol from your body, as sadness often comes with high emotional turmoil. The anger associated with sadness can also trigger the ‘fight or flight’ instinct and associated hormones (see section on anger). An excessive buildup of these hormones can be toxic to your body. Scientific research into crying is sparse but we have all heard the consoling words that a good cry washes it all out. Crying is also thought to stimulate the happy hormones endorphins and comfort hormone oxytocin.  As tears can be cue for others to comfort us, this may also affect the release of your comfort hormones. 

Sadness is instinctive to all yet each body reacts differently 

Depending on your physiological make-up, character and unique belief systems in your soul, everybody’s body reacts differently to sadness. Some cry more easily than others. Many feel anger prior to grief, depending on the situation. Your voice can change in different ways. 

Voice changes in sadness and the chest tightens

When you are sad, your voice changes. The tone of your voice may go up to a higher pitch or in others, the tone of voice gets softer. Depending on the level of sadness and emotional turmoil, your voice may be broken and you find yourself unable to speak through the tears.  You feel a tightness in your chest. 

Sadness causes tiredness and loss of muscle tone 

Sadness is often related to anger or fear at loss and the instinctive ‘fight or flight’ reaction can be triggered. Loss, instigating sadness is often accompanied by worry and sleepless nights. After time, once grief is accepted, your body feels tired. In sadness, your muscle tone relaxes. Possibly, the impact of self-soothing tears calms your body, again contributing to lethargy and tiredness. 

Your body wants more fatty foods when you are sad 

The classic image of the sad ‘break-up’ night in with ice cream or hamburgers has been scientifically confirmed. Generally, over the last decades, research on incidental emotions has discovered that emotions can effect behaviour in unrelated tasks. In the case of eating, sadness (relative to happiness) leads to more eating of tasty, fattening foods (Garg, Wansink & Inman, 2007). 

Instinctive emotions are like the weather, beyond your conscious control. For a balanced life, the first step is to understand human instinctive emotions, how they work and practical steps to take in order to avoid situations that are destructive to emotional wellbeing. Not every instinctive emotion that is acted on has positive consequences. Sometimes, it may be best to take shelter from the storm. Sadness is one of the negative emotions. It is human and yet in society, it is often ignored and very difficult to express to others. Pretending that sadness doesn’t exist or ignoring others with sadness is ignoring your humanity. Once sadness is acknowledged and processed, it is easier to move on in life’s journey.  Accepting that sadness, like a rain storm or other instinctive emotions with help is a more realistic approach to emotional well-being. Joy might not be far behind.