Depression, or sadness, has been called, "anger, turned inward." As such, depression is a form of anger, in which one is passive with this negative energy of anger. Someone who is crying, might tell you that they are sad, or they might tell you that they are angry.

In terms of the diagrams of the "three brains" in Romantic Dynamics, depression, or sadness, is at the bottom of the Anger Map, where one is passive, and doesn't make a decision as to how to use it.  The anger in depression may have originated in being hurt, emotionally, or it may have originated in being cut down or depleted in well-being. This makes sadness or depression, the "Mammalian-brained" mode of expression of anger, because it is felt as an interior emotion, rather than a "Reptilian-brained" impulsive, destructive action (aggression) or a "Higher-brained," patient, constructive, mature action (assertiveness.)

If you are ever sad or depressed, or know someone who is, consider whether they have "unmet needs," which is the very thing that well-being is supposed to provide. All the unmet needs are the source of the anger, which makes them sad. However, if one looks at the items, one could become just as angry at them as they could, sad.

For example, if one is "depressed about a job," then what are the details?

They may say they are sad about the "mean boss," the "low pay" and the "high hours." However, if they were to get angry instead of sad, they'd be angry about the mean boss, the low pay and the high hours. This mobilized them out of passiveness and prepares them to make a choice between getting aggressive about the mean boss, low pay and high hours, or else to get assertive about them.

Assertiveness, is of course, the way out of sadness and anger, because it amounts to going out to get one's needs met, without hurting others, which is the goal of the Anger Map.

The down-arrow on the Anger Map means that one is passive, and so passivity and inaction cause depression to deepen. By this guideline, then, either aggression or assertiveness are better than staying in depression. At least aggression teaches one the decision-making lessons that come with destructiveness, "win/lose" behavior, and feeds the stores of both ethics (conscience) and shrewdness (intuition), for better, more assertive decisions with anger in the future.