Do you think the majority of people are actually 'happy'?

[Beyond_Repair]

Most 'normal', well-adjusted people will say that they are, more or less, happy with their lives. Is this a coping strategy, self-delusion, or outright lying? Or are most people actually happy?

Maybe I'm just so disillusioned with life that I can't even conceptualize people being generally happy, and I'm just projecting my own misery onto others. Idk

Anyone feel the same?

 

[UKscotty]

Yeah I think they are. In interactions with normal people you can just tell they are not having the same mental battles we do.

I truly believe that a mind without depression is one that wants to be content and happy.

 

[Ash]

No, it's true. Most people experience the full range of emotions at one point or another but generally keep ticking over in content mode.

As you acknowledge, it's very easy for how we feel to colour our view of the world.

The majority of the population will probably struggle with unemployment or housing issues or family problems or stress or grief or chronic pain or anything else you can think of at some point - but they won't feel their lives aren't worth living. Or if they do, it won't be more than a fleeting thought before they make a rational decision that there's more to live for than to give up, or whatever.

They doesn't make them better or worse than someone who is suicidal. Just someone with different life experiences and personality and biology and who knows what else. Just another person.

 

[ADBoy777]

There are ups and downs for everyone, I believe most people living with the "carry on" motto
so yeah people sometimes kind of lying about being happy in my opinion but it's not about to lie it's more about fake it till you make it stuff.

 

[rozeske]

Some are given a favourable life circumstances that that makes them feel content and happy to live it. Some have a not so favourable life but have the mentality to be happy and content with their lives and with what they've got.

 

[divinemistress36]

I think most people are neutral

 

[lomorbu]

Everyone suffers but an individual's perspective (influenced by circumstance, mental illness, personality, beliefs, etc) will always determine how debilitating that suffering is

 

[Beyond_Repair]

Yeah I think they are. In interactions with normal people you can just tell they are not having the same mental battles we do.

I truly believe that a mind without depression is one that wants to be content and happy.

That makes sense. That's why I have such a hard time relating to most people, I feel like I'm on a different wavelength

There are ups and downs for everyone, I believe most people living with the "carry on" motto
so yeah people sometimes kind of lying about being happy in my opinion but it's not about to lie it's more about fake it till you make it stuff.

I've tried 'faking it til I make it' it was exhausting lol. But yeah I agree

 

[todiefor]

Most 'normal', well-adjusted people will say that they are, more or less, happy with their lives. Is this a coping strategy, self-delusion, or outright lying? Or are most people actually happy?

Maybe I'm just so disillusioned with life that I can't even conceptualize people being generally happy, and I'm just projecting my own misery onto others. Idk

Anyone feel the same?

I think a major difference is the large majority of people live and do not consider suicide as an option to escape their life.

Everyone has up and downs, everyone has difficulties and fears and regrets, people are not happy all the time, when they are not happy some people change their situation and some dont for all kinds of reasons, happiness is really difficult to define it is different for everyone. Some people are just happy to be alive.

I think the major difference is when something difficult or bad happens, a lot of people choose life and do not consider suicide, regardless of how difficult life may get. There's something intrinsic about life, or there's nothing that they care about, that motivates and drives them forward, or just life itself is enough.

My life was arguably a lot harder in the past, but I wasn't suicidal and every obstacle was met with enthusiastic problem solving, I believed in my life and myself and others and I wanted to continue to live. Was I overall happy I don't know, I didn't really think of my life in those terms, but I wanted to live and my life had meaning to me.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

I think that most people are happy but, at the same time, I think that people aren't as happy as they claim to be. Society itself is already filled with lies and two main examples of this is how everybody lies in job interviews about staying in the same job for 10+ years as well as being passionate for the job when they're actually there just for a paycheck. The second example is how people try to one up everybody else in their social circle on social media by only posting the good parts of their lives. Most people are happy enough to justify existence but I don't think that they are as happy as they claim to be.

 

[Beyond_Repair]

I think a major difference is the large majority of people live and do not consider suicide as an option to escape their life.

Everyone has up and downs, everyone has difficulties and fears and regrets, people are not happy all the time, when they are not happy some people change their situation and some dont for all kinds of reasons, happiness is really difficult to define it is different for everyone. Some people are just happy to be alive.

I think the major difference is when something difficult or bad happens, a lot of people choose life and do not consider suicide, regardless of how difficult life may get. There's something intrinsic about life, or there's nothing that they care about, that motivates and drives them forward, or just life itself is enough.

My life was arguably a lot harder in the past, but I wasn't suicidal and every obstacle was met with enthusiastic problem solving, I believed in my life and myself and others and I wanted to continue to live. Was I overall happy I don't know, I didn't really think of my life in those terms, but I wanted to live and my life had meaning to me.

Thanks for your response. A lot of what you said makes sense

I really relate to your last paragraph. I'm 27 now and up until the last few years I would change my situation, problem-solve, and almost obsessively worked on self-improvement. I was always pretty depressed and anxious, but I just pushed through it for whatever reason, never contemplated suicide (except maybe a few occasions in my childhood). I kind of just realized that it's probably not going to get much better from here on out and overall I haven't actually enjoyed life, and likely never will

Society itself is already filled with lies and two main examples of this is how everybody lies in job interviews about staying in the same job for 10+ years as well as being passionate for the job when they're actually there just for a paycheck.

This is one aspect of living that I just can't make myself do. Pretending to be passionate and enthusiastic about a potential job I'll at best feel neutral about just so I can continue to survive is just too much for me Especially when actively looking for a new job, when you're supposed to do the same thing for hundreds of different positions

 

[Forever Sleep]

The majority of people I know are struggling to some extent. That's not to say they are so unhappy they want to end it but I'm not sure I know many people who are entirely content. They're definitely not happy all or even the majority of the time I imagine.

I think a lot do just accept their lot. Maybe because they have some of the bigger things present- loving relationships/ families. So, they maybe either feel obligated or willingly keen to put up with the rest of it. Plus, some work at maximising the fun in life.

Maybe it's because I avoid optimists though!

 

[abchia]

People can't be categorized into "normal" well-adjusted people because we can't tell everything they are going through. Those saying they're happy might be only focusing on the good part of their lives when they say that, or that it's the social norm to say that they're doing good and nothing negative because awkwardness erupts when someone says they're not happy. For myself, I say i'm "okay" because I don't want to fully lie and say i'm good, but also because if i say i'm not happy then I would be expected to explain (which I cannot answer )

 

[Alltheywanted]

I think they are just better at lying to themself than we are

 

[LaVieEnRose]

I think the majority of people find life worthwhile. That's not to say they are happy.

 

[blackwave]

A person can't be happy all time as negative things happen in everyone's life. But people without mental problems cope with problems in easier way as they don't take everything too sensitively

 

[smvrtsa]

i've always found that intelligence and misery tend to be correlated, so i'm of the opinion that they're happy because they aren't able to conceptualise a lot of the darker thoughts that might drive one to suicide. it's not a perfect correlation by any means, but yeah, happy people tend to be a little simple in my experience but idk i don't say that in a mean way. they're happy after all.

 

[FuneralCry]

I don't even believe in the idea of happiness, I see the idea of such as a delusion used to invalidate how deeply hellish and undesirable existence truly is. There's nothing happy about being conscious and aware and capable of suffering so immensely in this existence that was so incredibly burdensome in the first place, only ceasing to exist can bring me relief, I find it deeply tragic how life even exists at all.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Do you think the majority of people are actually 'happy'?

Without a doubt. This doesn't mean that I believe people are happy all the time. I think "normally" there are ebbs and flows to happiness. I do think there are different degrees of happiness, also. Just because you're (we're) unhappy in life, and because we spend a lot of time with other unhappy people, hearing their stories, commiserating with them, it has the tendency of tainting our perspective of what normality is for most people.

 

[Orange Cat]

No one is happy all the time. Most people are happy overall and find their life worth living. They don't constantly dwell on the negative things. They focus on the positive.

 

[etherealspring]

i think ppl are lying to themselves when they say they are happy. they are better at coping than we are. i find it incredibily difficult to believe that there are ppl out there who are genuinely content with the life they are living. the concept itself is just completely foreign to me. tho this is probably because i have been depressed for nearly half of my life

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

It's easy for many people to be happy moment to moment but are they overall happy? That's more difficult to gauge because even if someone isn't happy overall, they can get used to hiding it well enough that not even they themselves know for sure.

 

[prisonerofexistence]

Most find their life worth living they don't consider suicide an option.

 

[ARW3N]

Life is suffering. Anything that is not permanent, that is subject to change, is suffering. Thus, happiness is suffering, because it is not permanent.

 

[Artemisia]

Not exactly happy, but content. They find a balance between the good and bad things and can live like that. It's easier for some than others, no doubt. The more intelligent, more empathetic and sensitive, more different from the main stream, usually the harder it is to find that balance because it's easier to see, understand or conceive the dark side of being alive.

 

[Little_Suzy]

Some people stay out of trouble, don't bring drama into their lives, and have a nice, comfortable home and work life. These people are happy!