Happiness As A Psychiatric Condition

Post Reply New Topic

A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric condition - I thought it was a cool joke but it might be serious! Do you want to have a look?

https://bipolardyke.wordpress.com/2014/ ... #like-1003

It offers the whole proposal, which does seem to be an academic paper for real. Well, come to think of it, happiness is a little odd is this world of ours, isn't it?

How jolly, if accused of some psychiatric condition, to fling right back, "You don't happen to be diagnosed with Happiness, do you?"

Well mania is already a symptom of mental illness, if that's what you are talking about. But happiness itself is not really a condition - it's a transient state of elation. Emotional states are not illnesses in and of themselves. Being sad is not an illness, but depression (which includes sadness) is an illness. Just as with mania - some people are happy during manic episodes, but a manic episode is part of an illness because it causes difficulties in a person's ability to function normally and make rational decisions. Mania isn't happiness and it actually leads to irritability and sometimes mixed states, so oftentimes a manic person is not actually "happy".

Now if somebody is always "happy" and it causes them to be unable to function normally or disrupt their quality of life or negatively affects the lives of others (without any symptoms of depression), then sure - maybe that's a unique illness. But if the person is generally a happy person, why does that have to be labelled as an illness? Maybe they're just resilient and are better able to manage their baggage.

Its actually really easy to diagnose depression on ANY random person....

but it is harder to classify a person as being "happy" most of the time.

Now ...if the happy person is in short supply, does that not make the depressed person the norm, and the happy person as the one that is abnormal?

I like happy people: but the are hard to come by: and sometimes, being depressed, just makes you more depressed seeing a happy person:
I like seeing happy kids!! ! - b/c by the time you have passed adolescents...most of us are depressed anyway.

IMSO being a happy person is just a persistent belief that everything is great despite all evidence to the contrary. A happy person is delusional by definition and needs to be hospitalized.

LOL:

Definitely!! ! A happy person in what is advertised in this day and age is actually delusional.

I think in order to start off being happy you need a certain level of stupidity: I wonder though, does the happy person have any ability to educate themselves? Do you need a certain amount of depression in your psyche to too turn too books?

--I would love to be one of those bimbos that go about spawning glee. (Especially the ones that put out for the males!)

if Happiness is a disorder it is one of the rarest and one of the easiest to treat