Is Happiness A Form Of Mental Illness?
Filed in Category Nervous System Review
Life is dangerous and ultimately leads to death. At any moment, any one of us could drop dead , either by natural causes or unnatural causes . As soon as we are born we start to “die”. Every one we know will someday die. To go around “happy” would be delusional. Is happiness a defense mechanism? Sorry for the downer.
Source: RP Bentall
Department of Clinical Psychology, Liverpool University
It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. http://jme.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/…
8 Comments so far
This Guy is either seriously depressed himself, or ran out of ideas for his PHD to suggest something so ridiculous.
Happiness, sadness, etc are all natural innate emotions expressed at the appropriate time. Now if we all were happy when we hear bad news, or sad when we hear good news, then that could be classed as a psychiatric disorder.
To be happy Internally, is what we are all searching for, and it is not a delusion, yes bad things happen in life, and yes we are all imortal, but that is no excuse to live life miserable, and to make everyone else miserable in the process.
Happiness is contaegous, if we are happy we run the risk of also making other people happy, and brightning up their day. Now is that really so bad.
Be Happy
No, not at all. There are cases of inappropriate emotion, to be sure, but in itself happiness is just another natural and healthy emotion.
Not everything is doom and gloom… while being happy all the fricking time regardless of the fact that your mother was just hit by a bus would be problematic, simply being cheerful about daily life would not.
i would not consider happiness a mental illness well you don’t feel ill when you feel happy
and it would not be normal to feel happy all the time
it would be better to be content with your own life
and happy some of the time
do as many things that you can that are good for you
and you will probably feel good
take care
I use to think like this two thus explaining my screen name… Emo Inky Person. But everyone has their own views on the topic of happiness. In my opinion being happy is normal and healthy. Of course you will someday die but death is one of the stupidest reasons for being unhappy(in my opinion.) In fact you should be happier by doing the things you love knowing that you will die. Live life to the fullest.
Sure. To be “mentally ill” is nothing more than a certain brain chemistry pattern. It is predictable and classifiable, and thus, in a sense, “normal.” Happiness is just a brain chemistry pattern.
I guess I am glad to be a mental ‘pleasant type’.
This article is one persons oppinion.
I am sure there are many oppinions of ‘happines’ .. but happiness as a mental illness now thats a first!)
I would say, to me you definately sound like a pesimist rather than an optimist and that is why you think the way you do.
I would consider Happiness as a feeling rather than a mental illness… but thinking the way you obviously do i see how you would consider it to be what you consider it. My advise to you would be maybe try and make some friends or get involved in a hobby etc:
I know what you mean when you say as soon as we are born we are dying and thats true only for the simple fact that we all know we are going to die some day , that is just life.
But while your here and you are alive why not just enjoy it ? I think you need positive people in your life and maybe thats why you think this way…
Stop thinking soo much and live for gods sake, it might give you a few more years hahaha.
It worries me that our children have to share this world with people like you in it…
Dont worry, be happy
Shelly
It seems silly to classify it as a mental illness, unless it is coupled with absence of guilt for doing something horrible or something.
To classify happiness as a psych disorder due to being ’statistically abnormal’ is like classifying a person with hair down to the waist as disordered due to ’statistical abnormality’.
But reading the article in full and seeing that it exists to be taken seriously has got to be some form of pathology, lol.