A groundbreaking new study revealed today that happiness may be a cause for depression.
Studies show that there is a darker side to feeling good and that the pursuit of happiness can sometimes make you . . . depressed. Too much happiness will make you gullible, selfish, less successful and, in some cases, suicidal.
Happiness does have benefits. It can protect us from stroke and the common cold, makes us more resistant to pain and even prolongs our lives. Yet, June Gruber, a professor of psychology at Yale University who has studied happiness, warns that it’s important to experience positive moods in moderation.
She compares happiness to food: Although necessary and beneficial, too much food can cause problems; likewise, happiness can lead to bad outcomes. “Research indicates that very high levels of positive feelings predict risk-taking behaviors, excess alcohol and drug consumption, binge eating, and may lead us to neglect threats,” she says.
“You don’t want to eat too much cake or broccoli or meat. Too much is bad. Less is more. And that goes for happiness, too.”
How else can excessive joy, or having lots of positive emotions and a relative absence of negative ones, hurt you?
First, it may hamper your career prospects. Psychologist Edward Diener, renowned for his happiness research, and his colleagues analyzed a variety of studies, including data from more than 16,000 people around the world, and discovered that those who early in their lives reported the highest life satisfaction (for example, judging it at 5 on a 5-point scale) years later reported lower-income than those who felt slightly less merry when young. What’s more, they dropped out of school earlier.
Psychologists point out that emotions are adaptive: They make us change behavior to help us survive. Anger prepares us to fight; fear helps us flee. But what about sadness? Studies show that when we are sad, we think in a more systematic manner. Sad people are attentive to details and externally oriented, while happy people tend to make snap judgments that may reflect racial or sex stereotyping.
In a 2005 study in the Journal of Personality and Happiness, University of Chicago psychologist Gwen Bolden asked 94 student to “get happy”… “really happy.” The students did everything they could possible do to make themselves happy – including sex, drugs and rock n’ roll – but soon after, the students were “depressed.”
“See happiness needs to be controlled. Too much will make you depressed and cause you to stay in bed and watch reality TV all day. Better to be a little happy or even a little sad. Too much happiness is no good.”
True that – theres room in life for all the rainbow of feelings . and honestly the most "happy" people I met had low morals and were busy destroying their lifes with "drugs" (alchohol and cigarettes are icluded)
Happy happy joy joy!
The key is balance. I was the ever positive, happy-go-luck child, but often confused what I showed on the outside (to the world) with what I felt on the inside.
Happiness to me is simply right living. Living a life in-line with the highest ideals I have for myself. Being emotionally connected to self enough to weather all emotions. Being happy all the time is unrealistic and is in many senses a form of denial. That's not to say we can't have the foundational knowing that everything is going to be OK.
truly cool
Just like a good 30-minute tv drama, man needs both a challenge and the prospect of surmounting it to be whole. Take that away and he senses something is wrong.
STUDY: RUMORS AND FALSE DATA CAN CAUSE STUPIDITY 😛
– No, it's the presumptuous state of being that causes depression, why? Unconscious trance state building and living on slowly causing the fake status of living that seems to be it – Uhmmm, crap! …same sex stupidity that Freud spoke about not knowing what I knw today, yes deluded self-electromagnetism unknowingly! – It's the hows of the game, my friends!
***Happiness is not some nature you crave, it's a discovery – that is to be secure, that is!
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Depression is when you're waiting to do things.
Happiness is when you can't wait to do things.
Robert D Dangoor
This is an eye opener…as an artist I spend many "happy" hours in the studio. This would explain why I also fight depression 24/7 even at my happiest. Been off medications now for three months as have been on antidepressant for just over 15 years. It took three months to ween my self off them under strict supervision. I still seek things to do to fight depression but without the side effects of the drugs.
The conflict between happiness and sadness are the same when you analyze them in depth, as to reach both state of mind in life take the same path as far as decision making. Then it's up to you on how YOU accept ones decision. Also the fear of success can lead to feeling depressed is another study I recently read about… life in general throws us many curve balls in the end and it's up to us how we handle it.
Forget depression – that looks like downright psychosis to me. Either way, that's nothing a trip to an expert won't fix.
I love it… A professor from Yale doing a study on happiness.Glad to see our higher education system is producing good studies…
I can't believe on the article it says "Too Much Happiness is No Good"…LOL LOL Unbelievable. I think I am going to go outside and smile.