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Get it all out.
By Christine Schoenwald — Written on May 05, 2017
Feeling sad can be one of the most debilitating and lonely feelings in the world. You may feel as if you have no energy and can’t get out of bed or you may drag yourself around throughout the day.
Sadness and depression are related but they’re not the exact same thing. Depression is a mental illness that requires treatment. You can be sad when you’re depressed or you can feel a lack of any emotion.
You feel sad when you’re grieving for someone or something that you’ve lost that meant a lot to you, and you feel sad when you’ve been emotionally hurt. Sometimes you just feel sad out of a sense of what might have been or nostalgia.
There are many ways to express yourself when you feel sad. You may be someone who prefers to fight those feelings and act as if nothing is the matter, or maybe you cut yourself off from other people only to emerge when you’re feeling better.
You may handle your sadness different every time. When processing sadness, you should never try to inflict harm on yourself or anybody else. Harm is never the answer to feeling sad and certainly doesn’t help one to heal at all. If you can channel your feelings of sadness into something creative that will help you to get through them, it is one of the best things that you can do for yourself.
Positivity can come from sadness; we can learn about ourselves and our values from being sad. It may show you exactly how much you’re willing to accept and where you draw the line in the sand, especially in terms of how people treat you.
If your partner dumps you without warning, sadness is a natural reaction. If you learn from those feelings, you might be better able to see the warning signs of a deteriorating relationship or you may find that you never want to be dependent on someone else’s treatment of you for your own happiness.
So how do you express sadness? Here's how each zodiac sign does so.
ARIES (March 21 - April 19)
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When you're feeling sad, you tend to want to not think about it or deal with it, so you indulge in some foolhardy and risky behavior. You'd rather take a chance on something than work through your feelings of sadness. If you have to put on a happy face so that people won't question you about your behavior, you'll do it. Hopefully, the adrenaline pumping through your body will help get rid of those feelings of sadness.
Read: The 13 Brutal Truths About Loving An Aries, As Written By One
TAURUS (April 20 - May 20)
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When you're feeling good, you can be very charming and sociable, but when you're feeling sad, you retreat into your cave. You don't want to be around anybody; you want to work through your sadness on your own. If you're forced to interact with people, your sadness will be expressed with anger and rage. Jealousy can be a trigger for both sadness and anger with you, so it's best if you try to find ways to work through your jealousy without becoming ballistic.
Read: The 5 Brutal Truths About Loving A Taurus, As Written By One
GEMINI (May 21 - June 20)
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One thing you don't do when you're feeling sad is sitting with it or wallowing in it. You try to keep your mind off it and do something, anything to distract you from feeling the way that you do. If you can, you try to share what you're feeling with someone who is close to you like a friend or a family member. You work through it using your great communication skills.
Read: The 13 Brutal Truths About Loving A Gemini, As Written By One
CANCER (June 21 - July 22)
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You have a good handle on sadness and you feel comfortable expressing it. You try not to over-think it too much but you usually can't stop dwelling on whatever made you sad in the first place. You try to pick apart why you're feeling sad, how you could have avoided it, and how you can prevent from feeling it again.
Read: The 5 Brutal Truths About Loving A Cancer, As Written By One
LEO (July 23 - August 22)
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You use your sadness as a way to relate to people. You know that people tend to see you as always happy and successful but you struggle just like anyone. You share your feelings and hope that it will show that everything isn't perfect in your life but someone you carry on. You don't let your sadness bring you down, you try to use it as a tool to connect with people.
VIRGO (August 23 - September 22)
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You tend to shut down when you're sad. You don't want to talk to anyone and when you have to, you tend to be very adversarial and confrontational. If you're going to feel bad, you're going to make sure those around you do, too. Your filter is removed when you're sad and it's almost as if you have no control over what you say or how you say it.
Read: 7 Brutal Truths About Loving A Virgo (As Written By A Virgo)
LIBRA (September 23 - October 22)
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You express your sadness by faking happiness. You hope if you act as if you're feeling happy, you'll be able to feel better faster. Plus, you don't want to bring anyone down with your mood. It's not an especially healthy or honest method of expressing your feelings but it's what you do.
Read: 11 Brutal Truths About Loving A Libra, As Written By One
SCORPIO (October 23 - November 21)
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When you're sad, you feel especially uneasy and out of sorts. You don't know what to do to cope with feeling sad. One way that you express sadness is through some kind of physical exertion like handball or sex. If you can get those endorphins going, you know that you'll feel better and you can go back to emotions that you're more comfortable with.
Read: 14 Brutal Truths About Loving A Scorpio, As Written By One
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 - December 21)
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You don't think of yourself as a sad person, so you're always somewhat surprised when you feel sadness. You tend to work up some theory about why you're feeling the way you're feeling and do all kinds of research on how you can feel better. You talk about your feelings with friends and strangers alike and are touched when someone offers you comfort.
Read: 7 Brutal Truths About Loving A Sagittarius, As Written By One
CAPRICORN (December 22 - January 19)
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You don't want to talk about your feelings of sadness, you just want to work it away somehow. You're not surprised when you're feeling sad; in fact, you almost expect it. The world is filled with a lot of pain and sadness and you've accepted that it's part of the human experience. But no one needs to know what you're feeling or why. You're not going to pick apart the reasons for your sadness, you're just going to get through it as best you can.
Read: 7 Brutal Truths About Loving A Capricorn, As Written By One
AQUARIUS (January 20 - February 18)
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Oh, you don't do sadness. You're not that comfortable with emotions anyway and sadness really brings you down. You don't want to talk about your sadness with others because then they'll want to talk about their sadness with you. Better to keep it to yourself and try and put that energy into something new and inventive — maybe an invention that helps hospital patients cheer up?
Read: 7 Brutal Truths About Loving An Aquarius, As Written By One
PISCES (February 19 - March 20)
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You know sadness and you know depression. You don't like being in pain but if it helps you feel better then you'll acknowledge how your feeling, usually to a therapist or close friend and you'll work through it. You don't hide from feeling sad, you try to channel it into your art. You use sadness as a catalyst to spark your creativity and imagination.
Read: 7 Brutal Truths About Loving A Pisces, As Written By One