Gentian vs Mustard
Ask yourself why. If you can answer, it is Gentian. If you go looking for a cause and there is genuinely nothing there, it is Mustard.
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Why they get muddled
Both are a flattened mood out of proportion to the week you are actually having, and both lift rather than settling in for good. From the inside they can feel identical. What separates them is whether the mood arrived carrying luggage.
The differences
The cause
Gentian
Specific and nameable. The interview, the two marks, the house that fell through.
Mustard
None. You woke up fine and by ten the gray had come down.
How it arrives
Gentian
After something. There is a before and an after.
Mustard
Out of a clear sky, with no before to point at.
How it goes
Gentian
It eases as perspective comes back, and encouragement genuinely helps.
Mustard
It lifts as suddenly as it came, sometimes within a day, and encouragement bounces off.
What you tell people
Gentian
You can explain it in one sentence, even if the sentence sounds small.
Mustard
You apologize for it, as though a mood with no reason needs a permit.
Which one to pick
Choose Gentian if
- You know exactly what flattened you
- The setback was small and the mood is not
- Somebody encouraging you actually helps
Choose Mustard if
- Nothing has happened, and you have checked
- It came down like weather and may well lift the same way
- The lack of a reason is the worst part of it
What if both sound right?
A Mustard cloud can arrive in the middle of a Gentian week, and then you are dealing with both at once. If you can name a cause for some of it and not for all of it, that is a fair sign to take the two together rather than pick.
Common questions
What if the reason is small and I still feel awful?
That is Gentian exactly, and it is the usual shape of it. The mood being out of proportion to the setback is not evidence against the remedy, it is the picture. The test is only whether you can name the thing, not whether the thing was big enough to justify how you feel.
What is the difference between Mustard and Gorse?
Mustard is weather and Gorse is a verdict. Mustard rolls in over a perfectly good week for no reason and rolls out again. Gorse is the settled conclusion that you have tried, it did not work, and there is no point trying again. Mustard often lifts by itself, while Gorse tends to need something to change.
How long does a Mustard mood last?
Traditionally it is described as coming and going on its own schedule, sometimes within a day and sometimes over a week or two, with no obvious pattern. That unpredictability is part of what people find so unsettling about it, and part of why being able to name the state at all tends to help.
Keep narrowing
The pairs closest to this one, if neither of these two turns out to be it.
GentianvsGorse
Gentian is discouraged and can be talked round. Gorse has stopped expecting anything and does not want the pep talk. Gorse is the same feeling, further along.
GorsevsWild Rose
Gorse has tried and lost hope. Wild Rose stopped trying a while ago and does not mind much either way. Gorse still hurts underneath. Wild Rose has stopped feeling much at all.
GorsevsSweet Chestnut
Gorse is calm about it and Sweet Chestnut is not. Both feel like the end of the line, but one has settled into resignation and the other is still inside the worst of it.
Still not sure?
Read both profiles in full, or start from the feeling and let the quiz narrow it for you.