An easy way to tell – Social scientists have a hard time trying to measure happiness. Surveys have revealed some useful information, but these are plagued by the fact that people misreport and misremember their feelings. But what if you had a remote-sensing mechanism that could record how millions of people around the world were feeling on any particular day, without their knowing?
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If you think having loads of money (from a good job?), good looks or the admiration of others will improve your life, think again. A new study shows that these things can actually make you LESS happy.
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?just not TOO MUCH – Scientists think that a little sadness can be useful, but clinical depression is NOT. This is yet another reason why teenagers shouldn’t smoke: They could be setting themselves up for depression later in life.
Unlike some other psychologists, Ian Hickie does not think depression is over diagnosed, although many of them don’t know exactly where to draw the line between people who are sad for a reason and those who have a problem that needs serious medication. And he thinks that borderline depression may be the most dangerous condition of all.
In New Scientist, Jessica Marshall quotes Hickie as saying “Most of the suicides do not occur in the most severely depressed.”
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In the holiday season’s flurry of shopping, gift-giving, parties and celebrations, it’s easy for the joy of the season to be lost in heightened anxiety and depression. Despite the recession, we need to remember: Christmas is a reason to be happy.
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