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A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#51

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

adyashakti wrote: post #9

it's Catch-22. the world is such a mess that if you're happy, you must be delusional.

I'm not the world, I just live in it. It might be a mess, but that mess mostly doesn't affect me. The few ways in which it does can be effectively mitigated by anyone who puts in even the tiniest bit of effort.

For that matter, nothing much stops me from carving out my own little world where I can clean up what mess it is, and live there. But to do that I'd have to admit to myself that I can't change the greater world and even acknowledge that there's no real point in wanting that other than to chase high status among our monkey tribe.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#52

Post by alansaber »

bensyverson wrote: post #19

Ha, this is fun. But there's a kernel of truth to it. The problem with American culture specifically is that it treats "happiness" as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling that is probably better described with a more specific word (joy, accomplishment, excitement, satisfaction, contentment). Our culture leans on this so hard that people start to think there's something wrong with them if they're not feeling general…

It's a balancing act no? Generally you certainly want to optimise to minimise unhappiness but not to the point of avoiding conflict/difficulty.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#54

Post by thewebguyd »

iberator wrote: post #33

Overall happinesses and motivation and belief are signs of too high level dopamine. Most business owner people have it. That's why they are often out of touch with random Joe. They belive in success even if math is saying that's bias. Form of pychosis

Yes. Too much of any particular state of mind can be bad.

The best is to cultivate a state of equanimity. Stop grasping at both good and bad states.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#55

Post by curiouscube »

tss93 wrote: post #27

The critique feels valid to me. There’s a tendency in modern psychology/media to pathologize the average human baseline: if you’re not consistently optimistic and thriving, something must be wrong with you, or at least you need to be in a pursuit of this. But constant happiness isn’t realistic, it’s like a desire to be permanently high. From my own experience I’ve landed somewhere near the Buddhist framing: the healt…

It seems to me that you're implicitly thinking of happiness/sadness as zero sum. That can be very limiting.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#56

Post by sgbeal »

freedomben wrote: post #24
delichon wrote: post #20

I need some advice on etiquette. Is the correct answer to "Good morning!" still "That's what the government wants you to believe." or is it now "You want me to contract a psychiatric disorder? What did I ever do to you?"

I've always loved, "what's so morning about it?" What are other people's favorite humorous responses?

> What are other people's favorite humorous responses?

"For a given definition of 'morning'."

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#57

Post by jongjong »

8bitsrule wrote: post #31

The way to happiness is to stop chasing it. Never mind all the ads ... It isn't 'out there somewhere'.

Yeah. I achieve happiness by not caring about anything too much. Nothing matters, ultimately. This is a universal truth. Once you internalize that, everything seems small. You can appreciate things more.

These days I enjoy just having the time to stare at the clouds for a few hours at a time.

I would honestly prefer to watch paint dry than going to work though.

The only thing I kind of want in my life is UBI because I hate being forced into the rat race.

I'm in a weird situation because I used to be a hustler software engineer/solo founder who would move countries at the drop of a hat (I.e. for opportunities) and I worked nights and weekends on side projects for like 15 years straight.

But now I don't care about anything. I'm just tired of striving. When you waste your life in the pursuit of a goal, eventually you build so many negative associations that you eventually don't want to work for anything anymore. I only like free stuff now. My idea of success now is getting stuff I didn't earn. I optimize for minimal effort.

I honestly feel more happiness when I get something for free.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#58

Post by tss93 »

curiouscube wrote: post #55
tss93 wrote: post #27

The critique feels valid to me. There’s a tendency in modern psychology/media to pathologize the average human baseline: if you’re not consistently optimistic and thriving, something must be wrong with you, or at least you need to be in a pursuit of this. But constant happiness isn’t realistic, it’s like a desire to be permanently high. From my own experience I’ve landed somewhere near the Buddhist framing: the healt…

It seems to me that you're implicitly thinking of happiness/sadness as zero sum. That can be very limiting.

Usually I don’t do math of sums, just let the happiness be and then fade or sadness or any other. Just grew to be ok with nothingness, cos I had a tendency of pushing towards sadness when I am not happy and then its like a pendulum and me riding it

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#60

Post by wang_li »

bensyverson wrote: post #19

Ha, this is fun. But there's a kernel of truth to it. The problem with American culture specifically is that it treats "happiness" as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling that is probably better described with a more specific word (joy, accomplishment, excitement, satisfaction, contentment). Our culture leans on this so hard that people start to think there's something wrong with them if they're not feeling general…

Trying to distinguish happiness from all those other feelings is like trying to separate depressed from all the negative things you feel during a day. Some words do not describe specific emotions, but instead indicate a general state which has all kinds of internal variation and magnitudes. A person who doesn't have much financial stress, their kid isn't having issues that require lots of problem solving from the parent, their job is fine, they are not arguing with their spouse regularly. They would say they are happy. Alternately one can have accomplishments , new PR at the gym, solved an issue at work, but still think of themselves as unhappy because they have things that they prioritize more highly that are not going well.
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