Dark Night of the Soul Symptoms: Common Inner Experiences

-

When people talk about the “Dark Night of the Soul,” the term “symptoms” often comes up. However, these are not symptoms in the medical sense – the Dark Night of the Soul is not an illness, but an inner transformation process. Nevertheless, certain experiences and inner states can be observed that occur in many affected individuals. This article provides an overview of some Dark-Night-of-the-Soul experiences and shows how they differ from clinical depression.

Note: A detailed treatment and differentiation of the Dark Night from pathological conditions are covered in other articles, e.g., here.

Loss of Motivation and Interest

A common experience in both the Dark Night and depression is a loss of motivation and interest.

  • Depression: This often appears as a lack of desire for everyday activities, work, or hobbies. Every task feels like a burden, and guilt over neglected responsibilities frequently arises.
  • Dark Night: The loss of interest also extends to spiritual areas. People report that familiar spiritual practices, prayers, or their previous relationship with God suddenly lose their effect or feel empty. This is not only about material or worldly aspects but also about an inner struggle with meaning, trust, and existence.

Similarity: In both cases, motivation and joy can decrease drastically.
Difference: In the Dark Night, this disinterest points to a deeper, existential level – part of a transformation process, not just a deficit.

Sadness: Debilitating or Transformative?

Sadness is one of the most prominent experiences in both contexts.

  • Depression:

    • Often described as flat, internally empty, and monotonous.
    • No specific target or object; the mood feels paralyzing.
    • Coupled with hopelessness and lack of perspective.

  • Dark Night:

    • Sadness can feel internally alive and meaningful.
    • It is directed toward existential questions: truth, authenticity, purpose, or – for religious individuals – relationship with God.
    • It feels transformative and can be understood as part of a maturation process, not a deficit.

Takeaway: Depressive sadness paralyzes, while the sadness of the Dark Night often has direction and inner orientation that goes beyond mere hopelessness.

Rumination and Mental Blocks

Thinking is another central area. Both depression and the Dark Night can involve intense cognitive strain.

Destructive Rumination

  • Thoughts circle endlessly around problems, failures, or fears.
  • In depression, negative loops often arise that offer no solutions.
  • Overvaluing one’s own thoughts and feelings intensifies the strain.
Picture by jr korpa on Unsplash

Rumination in the Dark Night

  • Individuals report intense rumination and inner restlessness.
  • Unlike depression, thinking may focus on existential questions or the sense of having lost prior access to God or inner truth.
  • These processes do not primarily lead to self-devaluation but to a perception of inner alienation.

Jumping Thoughts (“Mind Wandering”)

  • Thoughts jump from one topic to another without a clear direction.
  • In depression, this is usually interpreted negatively.
  • In the Dark Night, it may be part of a transitional process where the mind loses its usual orientation patterns.

Feeling of Rejection

A particularly distressing aspect of the Dark Night is the feeling of being “rejected” by God, life, or other people.

  • This experience is not the result of actual rejection but arises from the dimming of mental and perceptual faculties.
  • Cognitively, it manifests as a sense of isolation, loss of orientation, and inner emptiness.
  • Unlike depression, the feeling is not associated with self-devaluation but with existential alienation and the inability to access familiar spiritual pathways.
  • Paradoxically, Johannes of the Cross describes this phase as one of the greatest closeness to God, even if it is subjectively experienced as distance from Him.

Hopelessness

Hopelessness occurs in both contexts but has different origins:

  • Depression: Central symptom, reinforces lack of motivation and interest.
  • Dark Night: Arises additionally from the realization that the material or habitual life does not encompass the entirety of reality.
    • Spiritual insights or meditative experiences may intensify a melancholic mood, but they are part of a maturation process.

Important Notes

  • Not all experiences are listed here.
  • Further aspects appear especially in descriptions of the phases of the Dark Night, the “Night of the Senses,” and the “Night of the Spirit.”
  • Not an illness: The Dark Night of the Soul is an inner transformation process, not a mental disorder.
  • While many external phenomena overlap with depression, inner orientation and meaning distinguish them.
  • Orientation and differentiation: This article aims to help readers better understand the experiences and avoid misunderstandings. Anyone unsure should always seek medical or psychological advice if stress persists.

Conclusion

The Dark Night of the Soul brings intense inner experiences, which can manifest as lack of motivation, sadness, rumination, hopelessness, and existential alienation.

  • Shared with depression: External appearance can be similar.
  • Differences: Inner orientation, meaningfulness, transformative dimension.
  • Important: Do not pathologize – the Dark Night is a transitional process toward inner maturation and spiritual depth.

📚 Further Reading Recommendations

Juan de la Cruz / Johannes vom Kreuz – Dark Night of the Soul 
  • Central mystical work describing the Dark Night process.
Teresa von Ávila – The Inner Castle 
  • Classic text on the soul’s spiritual development through inner “mansions”; contextualizes the Dark Night.
Waldesruh, R. (2026). Chapter 2 – The Dark Day: On the Dark Night of the Soul. A Contemporary Interpretation of John of the Cross (Ch.2). Zenodo/Cern. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20385252

Thomas Moore – The Dark Nights of the Soul

Barbara Brown Taylor – Learning to Walk in the Dark

Authored by Rebekka Waldesruh

Social Media:
Categories:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guilt and the Dark Night of the Soul: Between Deep Spiritual Crisis and Everyday Life

-
Image
Most of us are familiar with guilt. We feel responsible for things beyond our control, or we believe we’ve done something wrong, even when, objectively, we haven’t. This type of guilt, arising from upbringing, societal expectations, or old childhood patterns, is conditioned . It weighs on us without us actually being “guilty” in a moral or spiritual sense. Social and Conditioned Guilt in Everyday Life Many people experience this type of guilt daily: a mother feels responsible when her children argue, even though she’s not involved in the conflict. A colleague believes they caused a project to fail, even though external circumstances were decisive. Such feelings are internalized expectations —social and cultural conditioning that can accompany us throughout our lives. Historically, churches and religious institutions have also contributed to a sense of false guilt . Strict moral rules, dogmas, and sermons often created pressure designed to control people. The result: we are accustome...
Open Episode »

The Sacred Value of Being Alone: Solitude in the Dark Night of the Soul

-
Image
1. A Hidden Longing in a Loud World In an age of hyperconnectivity, constant stimulation, and perpetual exposure to noise—both literal and digital—many people find themselves unexpectedly longing for solitude. It’s not necessarily because they dislike others, but because they can no longer hear themselves. The internal voice becomes drowned out by the noise of productivity, messaging apps, and the endless presence of other people’s expectations. This longing for aloneness becomes even more noticeable among people who engage in spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, or contemplation. Sometimes, without any obvious reason, a quiet but firm inner pull arises: Step away . Be still . Be alone . Far from being a retreat from life, this movement toward solitude may in fact be the soul's instinctive response to a deeper transformation at work. For the Christian mystic John of the Cross, aloneness is not an escape but a necessary condition for inner purification. Especially in what...
Open Episode »

Suicide Thoughts VS. Stoic Reflections on Death as Limitation, Melancholy, and the Dark Night – Four Perspectives on Death

-
Image
The thought of death reveals itself in very different contexts— from philosophical reflection, through emotional crisis, to spiritual transcendence. This timeless post introduces four distinct perspectives: stoic reflection, suicidal thoughts arising from crisis or depression, poetic melancholy, and finally the mystical experience of the Dark Night of the Soul. The aim is not just rational clarity but also possible paths to hope—especially through the contemplative way outlined by John of the Cross. 1. Stoic Reflection on Death In stoic thought, death is not an enemy but a prompt to live meaningfully. Marcus Aurelius puts it pointedly: “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” If we reflect that both the longest-lived and shortest-lived person give up the same thing— the present moment—then the point becomes clear: “When the longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, their loss is precisely equal.  For the sole thing...
Open Episode »