That Old Melancholy Feeling

Years ago, I confided to a friend and someone that I loved, that I was feeling melancholy. This could have been a mistake on my part from a practical standpoint, as she had been educated as a counselor. So she went about trying to ferret out exactly what I meant and doubtless was navigating through the history of the term and what it really meant in a clinical and technical way. Understandable perhaps, but it actually got to be a little frustrating for me, as I merely meant that I was feeling a bit sad and somewhat dejected by my circumstances. I wasn’t really looking for her to fix things or to rescue me. Frankly, I suspect that if I had described what I was feeling as a sadness or a feeling of dejection, she would have probably just asked me why and listened.

In truth, melancholy just felt like the right word. I didn’t feel “depressed“, at least not in the way that I understand depression. But I did feel deeply sad, dejected, and sick at heart. I certainly didn't have a dictionary at hand, nor did I really have the words flowing off my tongue to accurately and adequately describe what I was feeling. Anyway, in time the feeling of melancholy lifted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melancholia

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melancholy