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Do you attempt to be happy on a regular basis? Is this a form of bottling things up? I often think that the old "bottling things up" warning is a bad one, and people should attempt to put a positive spin on things at every opportunity. Do you do this?

Is it fair to say people have to work hard at being happy? That is once you don't feel you are chemically depressed etc you should make it your responsibility not to wallow?

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I sometimes wonder why I bother being happy because usually most things work out for the worst.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I know what you mean, though god knows things can be even worse when you don't try.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah I guess that's true too. I just get really frustrated when, despite whatever action I take to the contrary, everything turns out bad anyway.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Sesame Street. What does it mean?

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I dont attempt to be happy usually but it's interesting you mention being chemically depressed, because thats the only time I do work hard at not sliding into a morass. I've had depressive episodes and I refuse to be medicated ever again, so now when I feel a foreboding downward slide I sort of... mentally talk out of it? Meditation of a sort. I felt like this last night, I felt like hell, so I purposefully did things that would make me feel ok - hot bath, warm blanket, chatting to my flatmate and Buffy on the tv.
So sometimes yeah it does take work, it just gets frustrating when it feels like HARD work, cause that seems to ruin the point doesn't it?

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I have no experience of depression in any clinical sense, or any sense at all really.

I suppose being happy is work alot of the time no matter what your situation, everythings relative etc etc. still.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's okay to not try to be happy once in awhile, because it's self-indulgent and purging and all to have a good bad mood. Then you don't get thoughts like "I can't be perfect but everyone expects me to because I always act happy so I can't trust anyone with my problems and I'm just around to entertain people and MY LIFE IS SUCH A CHARADE!" it is hard work to be happy sometimes, and sometimes the effort just makes it worse so a little cry or sulk is all that's necessary to fix it.

at the same time, it's not good to take it out on others and make a habit of it for attention and all. if you can recognize that you're unhappy, and you can move on soon without hurting people, then it's okay to wallow just a little.

― Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 20 May 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

All Jody Beth Rosen's life is Channel 13?

(Is there such a thing as Billy Joel geekdom? Because if there is, I think we achieved it. But your post was absolutely brilliant. *flashes applause sign*)

I feel that if you're miserable all the time, then certainly there must be something wrong with you. On the other end of the spectrum, I also believe that if you're happy all the time, there's something wrong with you as well. I'm not worried about someone in a deep funk if I know they've been happier earlier in the week or if it's assured their mood is changeable. And certainly, if you're absolutely beyond miserable all the time, to the point where your normal, everyday activities are being hampered by your mood, that is cause for alarm.

Also, this may be my faith life showing up (*hears groans all over the land*), but I feel a person who lives life without hope isn't truly living. It's my philosophy that one has to have a lot of hope for the future in order to make it through this life. Maybe that seems like a lot of hippie-dippy talk, but I consider myself pretty much a realist (and people who truly know me would laugh at my possibly being called a "hippie" type) and I wouldn't live life without hope.

And thus ends a meandering "deep thoughts"-type post by Dee!

― Dee the Semi-Lurker (Dee the Lurker), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 07:02 (twenty-two years ago)

These days I'm not often depressed (a bad alcohol habit gave me pretty bad depression in the chemical sense) and just cruise along. I get moments of perfect happiness due to simple reasons, like if the sun happens to be shining and I'm sitting listening to some music smoking a cigarillo on a station platform (to quote my latest experience of the sensation yesterday). Concerted efforts at a positive mood I find wearing and counter-intuitive, though it does have an archaic 'stiff upper lip' appeal. This is not my nature though: I'd prefer to deal with a sliding mood by recourse to a dose of gallows humour (well, ok, I'd try a brisk walk first). The worst thing about depression is that it robs you of willpower of any sort. Then again, this thread is about happy/unhappy I suppose and not depression: are the two on a scale, or completely seperate?

― Gordon (Gordon), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 07:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't attempt to be happy, it just comes naturally. Too many people just don't allow those moments to seep through. A lot of people just like to revell and wallow in their own misery (I've been guilty of that on occassion). I don't think you can work at being happy, you can just leave yourself open to happiness. Even if the moments of happiness are simple one shouldn't let a determination to be miserable occlude a good feeling.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 08:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Remember kids - ignorance is bliss.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 08:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm naturally pretty easy-going and have a rather surreal and abstracted take on life which makes people around me laugh and thus makes me feel quite good. I wouldn't say I was happy; but I do work at not being unhappy, if you see what I mean. I avoid stress and pressure whenever possible. It's not hard. Life generally, in my experience, works out for the best as long as you're aware of what's going on to a reasonable degree; I am, after all, still alive and able to afford records and relatively healthy (apart from my collapsing stomach and bad back) and have a supportive family and plenty of friends and so on and so forth. I guess I don't attempt to be happy on a regular basis; confluence of circumstance and personality just means that I quite often am. Plus I deal very well with just being, neither happy nor unhappy.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 09:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I have read that people who bottle things up are more inclined to suffer from heart disease. So vent those emotions! mind you, people who have to interact with people who vent their emotions probably are also more inclined to suffer from heart disease.

I try to be serene all the time, but I become very depressed when I am tired, like I am all the time, especially now.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 11:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Maria that was a very otm post!

I feel better today, I just wish it would stop raining.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 21 May 2003 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

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