Sunday, May 17, 2009

What Makes Us Happy? - The Atlantic (June 2009)

What Makes Us Happy? - The Atlantic (June 2009)

“They were normal when I picked them,” he told Vaillant in the 1960s. “It must have been the psychiatrists who screwed them up.”


Excellent, and long, article at The Atlantic on what happiness is.

Apparently its love and friends.

True, but those damn serotonin levels can get you even when you love your family and have some friends. When melancholy grabs me, I can just be sitting there, having a normal day, when a sort of physical wave rolls in and makes me just want to lie down and hide.

1 comment:

Jim Baxter said...

Ah, neurotransmitters. A really good episode of major depression is one of the best chemistry lessons a person can have. I defy anybody who's never experienced it, I don't care how many degrees thay have in what, to understand what it's like. You might have triggers, there might be events which tip you over the brink, there might be unlikely events which can snap you back, but they'll have to be things that happen to you, not things that you can do. Once you're over that edge the likeliest thing is that you're going to be stuck there for a fair while because it's not cognitive any more. It's gone chemical.