What causes unhappiness?

[Hotdoh]

Originally Posted by Thevenin

Add serotonin levels to the list. Yeah, I know this is "dorky" but it's all true. All the listed "emotional" causes of unhappiness will cause measurable changes in dopamine, serotonin, and other neurochemicals.

So, do you mean to say that these neurochemicals cause people to become unhappy and then lead us to believe that there is an emotional cause, or is it that once the emotional causes are put into effect, the neurochemicals drop in response? I believe the latter to ring more true; these chemicals are merely observations of a situation at hand.

So, anti-depressants, helping to correct the state of that which is observed (the chemicals), will that truly destroy unhappiness, or will the drugs simply mask it. Furthermore, if only masked (as I believe is the case), will the unhappiness only be hidden from chemical detection, or will the owner of said chemicals be clueless as to his own unhappiness?

[ygolo]

I think anti-depressants just mask the unhappiness (at best). For me at least, they seem to be fairly ineffective.

[BrianBear]

Originally Posted by ygolo

I think anti-depressants just mask the unhappiness (at best). For me at least, they seem to be fairly ineffective.

Definitely, from the people I have talked to that where on anti-depressants they make you feel emotionless not happy.

[Archvile]

I was randomly browsing around on mbtic when I discovered this post:

we cant find inner peace so we impose our presence on the external world, demanding that it appeases our whims. When we dont get out way we force the external world to conform to our whims without knowing exactly what we want. We dont know what we want because we dont know what we need in order for our inner being to be satisfied.

http://www.mbticentral.com/forums/nt...html#post54883

Interesting to see how this runs analogous with my own ideas!
.

[Gracchus]

Elevation of the ego

[kuraiken]

Originally Posted by Edahn

Top contenders:
Fear of fear
Dishonesty with one's self
Clinging to the past and future
The pursuit of happiness

(these are all different ways of saying the same thing)

1. Lack of financial resources.
2. Lack of understanding between me and peers.(but no way I would tell them about MBTI)

and most importantly,DESIRE..

[Mr.G]

living

[Grape-Jelly]

Originally Posted by mkey

also, private messages where people curse you out for no apparent reason makes one unhappy.

Guilty.

[s0978]

Originally Posted by bluebell

It's actually quite hard to distil it down to the core reasons. This is all I could come up with at the moment:

- Loss of hope.

- Trying to live up to unconcious expectations.

I thought this was right on.

Personally if I'm ever feeling angsty, it usually boils down to feelings of inadequacy. Not measuring up in some capacity. So I look for what the unreasonable unconscious expectations are, and pat myself on the back for making the mistakes which were necessary to get where I am now.

Hopefully I've grown out of the no hope thing, that also seems to be about challenging one's unconscious assumptions.

[!diom]

Originally Posted by Edahn

Their approach to their own problems changes. How does their cognition change?

Their approach does change, but the important thing is that a non-depressed person actually deals with their problems, while a depressed person may not. After overcoming depression, they may redefine their problems after thinking them through with a clearer head. Also, they don't limit themselves to fixing what's wrong, and will strive to build on what's right. In short, they become more proactive and optimistic.