What is melancholy and how can it be interpreted?

Is melancholy negative? Is it bad? Does it help improve some aspects of daily life? The answers to your questions can be found here.

According to the RAE, melancholy is a vague, deep, calm and permanent sadnessborn from physical or moral causes, which means that those who suffer from it do not find pleasure or fun in anything.

In more medical terms, the specialized portal explains that “melancholy is considered a mood pathology that enhances negative emotions over positive ones”. They claim that it is more common after the age of 25 and occurs more in women than in men.

According to this website, these are some of the situations that act as causes ofand melancholy:

  • Death of a family member or loved one.
  • Couple breakup.
  • Long periods of separation from loved ones.
  • Economic losses and material assets.
  • Work or academic frustrations.
  • unpleasant experiences.
  • Ideological disappointments.

Can being melancholic help improve some aspects of daily life?

According to information collected by , researchers from the ‘University of New South Wales’, in Australia, stated that melancholy can help people make better decisions, be more objective. This same institution demonstrated, in another experiment, that Melancholy enhances the memory of the human being.

Additionally, a Harvard University study found that people who were more melancholic and sad were more creative in an exercise that the researchers carried out.

However, it should be noted that the above does not indicate that melancholy is positive for human beings. On the contrary, it is a negative state that must be paid attention to and, if it continues over time, it is necessary to see a specialist to avoid major mental health complications.

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