Whats the difference between these emotions?

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Happy vs. Joy vs. Excited
Angry vs. Mad vs. Annoyed vs. Irritated
Sad vs. Depressed
Fear vs. Anxiety vs. Paranoid

Can someone explain this. I have a very hard time identifying emotions.

I can identify those emotions very naturally but it's hard to actually explain them. It's like trying to explain the colour blue to someone who has never seen the colour blue before.

Happy vs. Joy vs. Excited

Still trying to figure this out. I understand euphoria (excited), but "happy" and "joy" are harder to nail down. Mild euphoria perhaps?

Angry vs. Mad vs. Annoyed vs. Irritated

I have a lot of experience with being angry...it's sort of my natural state of being.

In the order you have them, the go from strongest to mildest. Likewise, anger lasts a while. Irritation is short-lived. Annoyed and mad fall somewhere in between.

Sad vs. Depressed

I see "depressed" as long-lived sadness...likely without a good cause and having physical symptoms like lack of energy, not desire to do something you normally like doing, etc.

Sad feels the same, but is related to a specific issue for short period of time.

Fear vs. Anxiety vs. Paranoid

Fear covers a lot of things that are perfectly justifiable.

Anxiety is constantly worrying about something that's a real fear (even if just to you).

Paranoid can be fear or anxiety, but it's largely unjustified when you look at the facts of what's really going on.

I might be afraid of losing my job. I may worry (be anxious) about losing my job. However, unless there is evidence to support the idea that my job is potentially in jeopardy from a present and real threat/situation, obsessing over it is paranoia.

Of course, as the joke goes, "Just because you're paranoid DOES NOT mean someone isn't out to get you."

Certainly!

Happy - experiencing pleasure / euphoria / comfort.
Joy - experiencing flow. Joy is the experience of "being in the right moment".
Excited - experiencing any elevated emotional state, usually involves a sense of anticipation.

Angry - A negative form of excitement, where you feel motivated to perform violence (physical or emotional).
Mad - Anger that overwhelms your capacity to make rational decisions about your behavior.
Annoyed - experiencing an emotional stimulus that prevents you from 'getting into your groove'.
Irritated - experiencing an emotional stimulus that prevents you from being comfortable.
Note: A good way to conceive of the distinction between 'annoyed' an 'irritated', is that something annoys you if it's blocking a chance at experiencing joy, while something irritates you if it's blocking a chance at experiencing happiness.

Sad - a negative emotional reaction to an event, where you wish that the event had not occurred.
Depressed - experiencing an utter lack of motivation or will, usually paired with a perception that nothing you do will have any positive effect.

Fear - A negative form of excitement, where you feel motivated to flee a situation.
Anxiety - A negative form of excitement, where you feel that you cannot flee a situation that you anticipate will cause you distress.
Paranoid - A pervasive form of anxiety that you believe another person is experiencing irrationally. (You cannot *experience* paranoia, you can only accuse others of being paranoid).

Happy is an adjective, joy is a noun.
Joy and happyness are the same thing.

Being excited is being infused with energy suddenly in a joyous way.

A child can be so excited by santa coming, or an adult by a coming vacation.

++++++++++++

Angry vs mad

In Britain "mad' usually means 'crazy' or "insane'.
In America it usually is a synonym for 'angry' (so they are the same damned thing in the USA). But it can mean either in either country.

Sad and depressed are different things- but its hard to explain (ill get back to you about that). Being unhappy that your mom, or your cat died, is being sad. But a chronic feeling of hopelessness that goes on all of the time is depression. It can be caused by something , or it can be clinical depression that doesnt really come from anything external.

Fear is the feeling of impending danger ( from a poisonous snake, or an angry looking biker dude in your presence).

Anxiety is being tense about something bad happening to you in the near future (loosing your job, flunking school, etc).

Paranoid strictly speaking is being convinced that there are conspiracies against you. For example if you notice that every fourth person riding the same subway car as you is pulling out devices (cell phones, I pods) and you conclude that that is because they are all reporting on YOU to the CIA because the CIA is following your whereabouts- then you are paranoid.
Its a form of psychosis. Though the word is used in looser way like being rationally distrustful of strangers when you walk through a bad part of town at night.

I think happy and joy are just synonyms both meaning "to feel good", and excited usually means that but for the reason that you're looking forward to an event.

Sad is the opposite of happiness and joy, but depression is a clinical condition. I don't think depression is an actual emotion, if my experience is any indication it's a lack of all emotion.
Fear is being afraid. I actually can't describe how this differs from anxiety and paranoia other than that anxiety occurs in social context and paranoia is when the object you're afraid of isn't actually real, and the fear is being caused by your own wandering mind. I think that's about as close as I can get it though.

I have good emotional understanding and see all of these are on a qualitative scale - with varying degrees of the emotion being expressed.

The primary emotion for this group is happy:
Joy expresses more of this emotion than excitement, which expresses more of this emotion than happiness.

Joy>Excitement>Happiness

The primary emotion for this group is angry:
Rage expresses more emotion than Anger, which expresses more emotion than feeling Mad/Angry, which expressed more emotion than feeling annoyed, which expresses more emotion than feeling irritated

Rage>Anger>Annoyance>Irritation

The primary emotion for this group is sadness, but there is more sadness in depression than just regular sadness.

Depression>Sadness

The primary emotion for this group is fear. Paranoia expresses more of this emotion than regular fear, and anxiety is an expression of less fear.

Paranoid>Fear>Anxiety

Hope this makes sense.

Happiness is a calmer emotion than joy or excitement. Excitement is more anticipatory while joy is more of a reaction.

I think annoyance is usually directed at something while irritation doesn't necessarily have a direct cause. I don't really know if there's a difference between angry and mad.

I consider depression to be more of an empty feeling, and there's usually an anxiety/doom feeling along with it. People who don't really know what depression feels like confuse it with despondence. It's not the same thing. Sadness is different yet, and not necessarily negative like depression, it's more cathartic.

I think anxiety is used to describe different things in different circumstances. Sometimes it's just a milder type of fear. Other times it's just generalized tension that I wouldn't really compare to fear, just stress. Then there's the jittery restless feeling I get from too much caffeine and that's different yet. I don't think paranoia is an emotion so much as a suspicious disposition.