Happiness: Enough Already

I agree with the authors on this. I work with a woman who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I watch her go about her daily routine, trying to cope with the disease and the effects of the treatments. She tries to act upbeat and cheerful through it all and I just kind of shake my head. I don't understand how we've gotten to the point in our society that it is more important to be thought of as being "professional" or "a team player" than it is to be seen as a person with a whole range of emotions and thoughts. Another friend at work's physician recently tried to put her on Prozac after she went in complaining about ongoing pain in her hands. Treating arthritis with Prozac??? We are real people with real pains and real bummers, at times. When we realize this, treat the problems, cry about them a little bit, then get over them, that's when we experience true happiness.

this is what i've been thinking!!! all my friends are constantly telling me " oh my therapist gave me some depression medication" or " i've been diagnosed with depression" and they're teenagers! they're moody! their " depression" is clearly not due to any particular or normally pain causing situation, it's just something they're going through because of their age, that's normal. sadly, i think teenagers are the demographic that are most being misdiagnosed because their parents are so concerned that they are not acting like the child they used to be and are being bombarded by all of these media sources telling them that any kind of sadness means that their child is depressed and naturally what do parents what to do for their children? help them and make it all better. Sadness is normal and should be expressed in a healthy way, not treated automatically with any or all drugs available. this article doesn't lack compassion or comfort, it simply states the truth and is an incredibly accurate comment on our situation as a society

Talk about missing the point! It isn't that despair is a good thing. There is nothing in the article saying that. The point they are trying to make is that being sad, which is different than despairing, is a natural part of our emotional make up as humans. This article speaks to a problem we are creating by insisting that everyone who does not feel completely happy is a candidate for medication.

The article's point of view is not meant to be seen as absolute truth or false. An individuals' ability to feel and deal with sadness, sorrow and depression varies. What is necessary and/or works for some people, medication and/or therapy, may not be the best solution or the first solution to consider for others. Suffering is a retrospective time to evaluate and progress through complex emotions. Some should wrestle with it.

As someone who suffers from clinical depression, my life would be (and was) a mess if it weren't for Paxil twice a day. Too much of anything is never good

As I was telling a friend recently: We all should know this but alas..."EVERYTHING IN MODERATION" or "TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU"

Hmm....covered most of what the fellow said in so few words... ;-)

As I told a friend: what all of this is pretty much highlighting is what we all know or should know......"EVERYTHING IN MODERATION" or "TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING ISN'T GOOD FOR YOU"......

This article has fallen on the same black hole it tried to fight to begin with. In order to accuse "extreme" unreasonable happiness it exhults unreasonable hopelesness. Happiness is not an end in itself, and should not be confused with the state of idiotic ignorance of the polyanish sector of new age that hangs on to that flag as it could have to the defense of penguins or pest free tomatoes without any thought. Hapiness is rather a by-product of doing what you are meant to be doing, of putting meaning into your life, of moving forward. The falty logic in this article mentions Lincoln's bouts of depression as his motor....what evidence supports that? How much more productive and energetic coluld he have been "without" those dark episodes? Who can say with no doubt that sadness was a motor and not a heavy weight he struggled against?
Questioning the status quo, striving for a better life, that is not a consequence of sadness. On the contrary, sadness is, in most cases, associated with hopelesness, and a hopeless person finds no incentive to attempt to change because he or she believes it's worthless, such is the very essence of hopelesness. A happy person is not necessarily content. Rather, a happy person is one that has the capacity to accept reality as it is, and that is a great starting point for improvement. Positive thinking is not equal to believing in Santa or chanting with the Hare Krishna (May G'd bless them, no ofense meant). Positive thinking is tied to confidence in our free will and our responsibility to produce change.
Being sad after the death of a loved one is a healthy reaction, and mentioning that is a punch under the belt in this article. That, of course, doesn't turn you into an unhappy person unless you were one to begin with.
So, guys, come on, please give me something with a little more substance. This looks like an article written to get some space in the media by attacking, like the Salieri's that find it easier to critizise Mozzart's than to excell.

Is being successful really what we should all strive for? And if so, who decides what the meaning of "success" is? For one person, having a purely, blissfully happy life might be thier version of success, while another person might think a successful life ends with retirement from thier position as CEO from a Fortune 500 company. It's all so subjective.

I am generally happy and content with myself and my life. I am well aware that bad things will happen. I will lose people I love. I may get injured or become ill, as may my loved ones. I may not get the promotion I want, etc. But my overall happy or content attitude prepares my for such times......knowing that there is good and bad in life, happy and sad times. That's just life. The state of mind choose to go through life it is up to each individual.

I am generally happy and content with myself and my life. I am well aware that bad things will happen. I will lose people I love. I may get injured or become ill, as may my loved ones. I may not get the promotion I want, etc. But my overall happy or content attitude prepares my for such times......knowing that there is good and bad in life, happy and sad times. That's just life. The state of mind choose to go through life it is up to each individual.

I am generally happy and content with myself and my life. I am well aware that bad things will happen. I will lose people I love. I may get injured or become ill, as may my loved ones. I may not get the promotion I want, etc. But my overall happy or content attitude prepares my for such times......knowing that there is good and bad in life, happy and sad times. That's just life. The state of mind choose to go through life it is up to each individual.

I had always been a happy person. I have never had a true experience being sad until recently, my rose colored world crashed into reality. The event that caused this crash was honestly very silly, but it made me seriously sad enough to examine my perception of the world and my attitude towards it. It has been a very interesting journey - I honestly can say I do not want to put the rose colored glasses back on. I never realized how blind and stupid I was, I walked around not really seeing my life and who and what I have filled my life with.

As a sad/sober person, I feel much better armed to make good decisions about who and what I fill my life with. I am not RATIONALIZING my shortcomings, my relationships and what I have chosen to fill my life with. I am looking at it straight on for the first time... It is easy to walk around with rose colored glasses, to always see the sunny side of life, to beleive it is darkest before dawn and the sun will come out tomorrow... It is difficult keeping the rose colored glasses off to be able to experience sadness and incorporate it into my life... I want to see my life as it really is - no excuses, no rationaizing - I hope I honestly never slip back into being so stupid again....

Being happy is like being the frog in the pot of warm water experiment... the frog will not jump to into boiling water but if you put him in warm water and slowly turn up the heat he will not know he is boiling to death until it is over... Happiness can have the same consequences, without the reality chck of sadness your blindness will kill you off in the end. Think about it...