Anyone else never experienced happiness in their entire life? Is it even a real thing?

[iloverachel]

I don't really recall when I was ever happy or felt happiness
Even before my depression and suicidal thoughts developed 8 years ago, I didn't really experience happiness. I felt okay, or normal i guess. More content than now, but not happy or anything like that

For those who did ever feel happy, what is it like? I have trouble understanding what it's like or if it's even real

 

[Beyond_Repair]

I vaguely remember being happy before the age of about 10, when I spent time with my grandparents away from my family.

After that, maybe a handful of happy moments throughout life, much less so recently. But overwhelmingly no, so to me not really worth it overall

 

[ijustwishtodie]

It's real but I haven't experienced it. I don't think I'd ever will. Life is too exhausting for me to be happy

 

[InAgony]

I experienced moments of happiness when I was young. It's hard to explain but I guess its like laughter bubbling inside you, feeling light and at peace, connected, content and joyful. That's the best I can do to describe it, I'm afraid!

I miss those moments as I'm weighted down now in the dark, never to experience happiness again.

 

[snowyyy]

I think it is normal for us not to experience all the happiness fully, welp I have the same. I am just happy for very short moments, it also depends on the situation I am in. Each of us has a reward system and by some stimulus this dopamine is produced, maybe not to a great extent. We happen to be drowning in sadness, so it is the most important for us and not the good moments tho

 

[cowboypants]

I only have moments of happiness here and there. I think my mind was kinda screwed early on.

I knew I was different to other people, so I was feeling sad for not being like them and keeping up with my peers

 

[Shimidori]

Staying happiness has always dodged me in a consistent manner. I have *felt* moments of happiness, days where I wasn't feeling like I wanted to jump off a building and crack my skull wide open.

...But they never last for long. The realization that happiness is only temporary is enough to cause me to drift, and many of the worst mood swings I've ever had in my life always came shortly after some of the most happy moments in my life.

 

[Vicolo cieco]

I've never been happy, not even as a child. Despite a stable family environment I always sensed that life was about struggle and survival of the fittest. I knew I didn't have what it takes to live a decent life.

 

[goodoldnoname923]

I don't really recall when I was ever happy or felt happiness
Even before my depression and suicidal thoughts developed 8 years ago, I didn't really experience happiness. I felt okay, or normal i guess. More content than now, but not happy or anything like that

For those who did ever feel happy, what is it like? I have trouble understanding what it's like or if it's even real

Brief moments yes,from a young age moments with friends and family,but i admit the emptiness of depression has definitely tainted a majority of my life but i've definitely felt happy at some points or had brief moments of it

It's unfortunate when i think about it really its so distant and a vague foggy memory but it's definitely there i know the feeling but i also don't its weird

 

[greebo6]

No , not really.
It does actually exist but.... it happens to other people.

 

[Havnis]

Yeah, I experienced it and still by loving my girl, she puts me in fog and oblivious state of mind. She literally skimmed my headache and depression.

 

[FuneralCry]

I don't believe in the idea of "happiness", I see the whole idea of it as a delusion. I'd never be content with the futile and torturous burden of existing as a human, to have the ability to exist is beyond undesirable, I'd never wish to exist, existence itself is the problem. To me non-existence is always preferable to suffering for decades just to be tormented by old age and die anyway, I wish I could erase my existence so it's like I never existed at all, it truly disgusts me how humans impose existence in the first place especially as there's no limit as to how much one can suffer.

 

[Havnis]

I don't believe in the idea of "happiness", I see the whole idea of it as a delusion. I'd never be content with the futile and torturous burden of existing as a human, to have the ability to exist is beyond undesirable, I'd never wish to exist, existence itself is the problem. To me non-existence is always preferable to suffering for decades just to be tormented by old age and die anyway, I wish I could erase my existence so it's like I never existed at all, it truly disgusts me how humans impose existence in the first place especially as there's no limit as to how much one can suffer.

Whole consciousness is delusion not just happiness but also suffering.

 

[tankapi]

I've experienced happiness before. And I sometimes can still experience pleasure. What I have trouble believing in right now is hope.

 

[everythingoes]

I've asked myself this so many times. I don't think I've ever felt true, genuine happiness. But what even is happiness? Being loved? Not wanting to die? Eating a good cookie? Is it the same as pleasure? Cause I've certainly felt pleasure while eating a good cookie, but I wouldn't necessarily say I was happy, I was still suicidal while eating that cookie. Is happiness subjective?

I see someone above described it as "laughter bubbling inside you, feeling light and at peace, connected, content and joyful".
If this is happiness, no, I've never felt it. In all my 23 years on earth, I've never felt like that. Not even as a child.