The Deceitfulness of Happiness...

Perhaps you have noticed how the self-help sections of bookstores keep growing larger. Depression, anxiety, anger, divorce, relationship issues, addictions, trauma, low self-esteem, loneliness, grief, stress, lack of confidence; if you can name it, there is a book on it. And with every passing year, psychologists, coaches, counsellors, and therapists steadily increase in number – as do prescriptions for medication.

Meanwhile, on television and radio, in magazines and newspapers, in podcasts and social media, the ‘experts’ bombard us with non-stop advice on how to improve our lives.

And yet, even with all this support and advice, human misery is growing, not reducing! The statistics are staggering.

The World Health Organization identifies depression as one of the biggest, most costly, and most debilitating diseases in the world. In any given year, one-tenth of the adult population suffers from clinical depression, and one in five will suffer from it at some point in their life. And more than one-third of the adult population will, at some

point in their life, suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Furthermore, one in four adults, will at some stage suffer from drug or alcohol addiction. (In the United States alone, there are currently over 14 million people suffering from alcoholism!)

But here is the most shocking statistic of all: almost one in two people will at some point seriously consider suicide and struggle with it for a few weeks or more. Scarier still, one in ten people will at some point actually attempt to kill themselves. Fortunately (in comparison to the number who consider it), very few succeed.

Think about those numbers for a moment. Think of your friends, family, and colleagues (to let you in on how close to home this or perhaps, you are part of the unfortunate statistics). Almost half of them will at some point be so overwhelmed by misery that they seriously contemplate suicide, and one in ten will try

it!

Now, think about all those common forms of suffering that are not considered to be ‘psychological disorders’ but nonetheless make us miserable: work stress, performance anxiety, loneliness, relationship conflicts, sickness, divorce, bereavement, injury, ageing, poverty, racism, sexism, bullying, existential angst, self-doubt, insecurity, fear of failure, perfectionism, low self-esteem, ‘midlife crisis’, ‘impostor syndrome’, jealousy, fear of missing out, a lack of direction in life, and the list goes on.

Clearly, lasting happiness is not normal! This naturally begs the question; Why is it so hard to be happy?

Excerpts from the book, "The Deceitfulness of Happiness" - available on Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8G3MSL5