Happiness Myths
The following is part of a presentation I gave at a college campus a few months ago, when I was asked to speak to “mental health issues”;
You and I enjoy a greater standard of living than any people have ever known across history. We live more comfortably and enjoy more privileges than royalty only a few hundred years ago, and wield tools and technologies that scientists, philosophers and inventors could only have imagined. We are living in what appears to be the peak of human civilization.
And in spite of all of that, this year, more than 30% of adults will suffer from a diagnosable psychological Disorder.
This year, Depression and related issues will account for the second most expensive and debilitating issue in the world.
This week, 1 in 5 of us will experience depression, 1 in 4 of us will suffer from some form of addiction in the course of our lifetimes, and nearly half of us will encounter some situation or circumstance that brings us to a serious contemplation of suicide, and 1 in 10 of us may actually attempt suicide in our lifetimes.
SO what has happened to us?
Is it that Depression, Anxiety and the like are just that much more intense now than in the past?
Are Mental Health problems rising at an exponential rate due to some biological, social or economic cause?
I am not convinced that our problems are any worse than they were 1000 years ago, or that we experience feelings to a greater degree than did our ancestors, but that we are missing context for our suffering, and have replaced that context with a very harmful narrative that “life should not be this way”
Let me explain: