Lypophrenia; Vague sadness without a cause. How to get over it? – The Vigilant Mind

Lypophrenia is a modern slang term that refers to a feeling of sadness without causes mostly when you miss someone. But, that might not always be the case.

Feeling sad and don’t know why? Vague and numb? Feeling empty? You’ve come to the right place! Continue reading to find the symptoms of lypophrenia, it’s causes, and cures.

Quote often, teenagers are found complaining about being “depressed” and sad without a reason and feel ‘lost’.

Now here’s the kicker, the thing about Lypophrenia is that it’s actually a beautifully laid down trap, that will bait you into creating more problems and that the condition itself is not a problem but a feeling.

Symptoms of Lypophrenia

It is a feeling of sadness. Not any new emotion devised through rocket science.
You’d feel the same way you felt if you were sad.
Depending on the reason behind why you feel sad in that moment, you could experience the emotion differently, i.e., if you were missing someone, you’d be thinking about them and those thoughts would make you feel emotional or even cry.

Note: the term is modern and I’ve tried to break it down in the best manner possible for your understanding but I do believe that it is not any different from normal emotions of sadness. It seems like an attempt to further narrow down causes of sadness to be more precise. Yet, I believe this is not a term coined in psychological literature.

The process of creating unnecessary problems-

Lypophrenia itself is not a problem and just a condition of feeling ’empty’ and ‘sad’ because there is nothing exciting or happy happening; or also maybe because one is tired of doing what they already are.
Then, the affected person tries to hunt down ‘reasons’ and in the process of doing so, they pick up things and give it a negative interpretation and make it an issue which marks the creation of an unwanted problem.
Then the person thinks about it, tries to come up with a solution for it, partly fails and partly succeeds.
They then realise that the issue they traced is not the cause of their sadness, so they look for more things to give a negative interpretation to.
The cycle keeps repeating until a huge mountain of small issues is piled up- so much that it becomes a serious case.
(Like having 1000 low valued coins is in total a large value)
This compilation of made-up issues then leads to depression, anxiety, insecurities, self-blame and even self-hate.

Getting over Lypophrenia: Cure

Often, getting over a problem (especially when the reasons are unsure), does not require you to hunt down the issue and think about the problem.

If you were to be positive, stay hopeful and work on self-improvement, opportunities, career, school and do productive things. The success of that would overshadow the vague feelings of emptiness and sadness.

Be proud of what you do, do things today that the future you will thank you for. Of course, these statements do not stand true if the issue that was being discussed was a more serious mental health challenge like depression or anxiety.

Another very useful tip you can take is to just feel the emotion without letting your thoughts run too wild trying to figure them out. Feelings are natural and it is alright to feel negative emotions. The above cures might not work for everyone. Perhaps what may work for you is to simply acknowledge how you feel and not let it go anything beyond that. It is only human to feel.

In two weeks, you’ll feel it.In four weeks, you’ll see it.

In eight weeks, you’ll hear it.

What is coming is better than what is gone.

What Causes Lypophrenia?

i) Missing someone-
Don’t keep that within you, tell them you miss them, talk to them, meet them- if none of these are possible due to inevitable circumstances; let someone you trust know that you miss a certain person.

If none of the above is possible, divert your mind. Do something else, talk to people about something, Watch a video maybe, or sleep if it’s night.

ii) Been doing one kind of work for a long time-
Another trigger to lypophrenia is if you’ve been doing one kind of thing for a long duration, suppose texting. If you’ve been texting all day- You have a high potential to feel tired and sad without any reason.

Make sure you don’t tire or bore yourself with what you are doing, keep a variety of different chores in your day- alternate the boring and exciting ones to keep yourself fresh and happy.

iii) Lack of sleep-
Lack of sleep drains brain power and reduces the energy to think clearly and have an open mind, and the inability to think clearly is a strong trigger to be affected with lypophrenia.

iv) Insecurities and loneliness-
Another strong trigger is when you feel that no one is there for you, but you are wrong here, you just don’t acknowledge the people around you. Sure you must be careful with who let into your heart- but let the deserving ones come in.

There are people (friends, family and sometimes strangers even) who you can vent to and lighten up your heart to and feel better. Bottling up feelings is always a strong trigger to depression.

Always remember, this condition is never a problem itself, it’s just a feeling that you need to distract yourself away from, You are living a good and prosperous life- and you reading this is a sign that you are blessed with technology and shelter.

Always remember, the glass is half full, not half empty. If you happen to be a realist, then focus on what is in the glass and why it is there and not how much of it is there.

The author, Mohammad Amaan Siddiqui, has been interested in advocating for social causes since 2014. The alarming news during the Islamic month of Ramadan in 2014 where bombs were dropped on Gaza was a wake up call that reaffirmed that there was a world beyond gaming. This incident moved Amaan redirecting him towards youth activism and social sciences.

Since then, he has written many pieces targeting primarily young readers on matters of self-awareness, self-improvement, and other individual and personal affairs, social causes, various aspects of society, religion, politics and global affairs and even poetry.

Amaan is a strong advocate of peace, global unity, globally minded citizenship, feminism, philanthropy, social service etc. This blog is his primary platform to advocate for all that he wishes to stand for.