Happiness. There is a natural inclination among women to try to improve themselves and their lives, which isn’t a bad thing. So I started to report what makes for a happy life. When I went back home to Pakistan this past summer, I couldn’t help but notice I had picked up the habit of smiling whenever I looked at a stranger. According to a 2012 survey report on mental health conducted by National Alliance on Mental Health, 73 percent of students experience some sort of health crisis during college. We got here. By Ruth Whippman Oct 4, 2016, 8:00am EDT Stop canceling on your friends. Americans want to be happy. A Reddit community for sharing and discussing science-based psychological material. Ray Mitsch is a psychology professor at Colorado Christian University. We’ve seen each other through good times and bad times. The top three health concerns are anxiety, depression and stress. Recent studies show that depression and anxiety symptoms are up. I grew up in Africa and was greatly disappointed when I came to the US for college and saw that although things were much more technologically developed, so many people were lost emotionally, relationally and spiritually. Whippman: It’s common sense, really, and the research is consistent on this: Our social connections and personal relationships will make us happy. Negative emotions have their place, but happiness is what we all want for our kids. Step back 120 years and you’ll see something that looks very like today’s gluten phobia: graham flour as the key to bodily and spiritual health. By having such a short history, the United States is in a somewhat unique position. I do too. MITSCH: Well I think it’s stoked what I … But this thinking doesn’t acknowledge privilege. Since the late 1800s American has been exploring the Science of Heath and Happiness. I think it initially stems from the optimism that seems like an ingrained part of American culture. The culture’s tendency is to downplay the structural and systemic realities. Whippman: Several years ago, my husband was offered a job with a start-up in Silicon Valley. From the bestselling author of Sex Object, a searing investigation into American culture's obsession with virginity, and the argument for creating a future where women and girls are valued for more than sexuality The United States is obsessed with virginity--from the media to schools to government agencies. This is also a contributing factor in America’s growing obsession with happiness. These staggering numbers highlight an essential fact: unhappy people make the private self-help firms a lot of money. Whippman doesn’t think America’s happiness obsession is simply misguided—she believes it’s actually potentially toxic, a form of gaslighting wherein people are made to … Our obsession with productivity is partly a reflection on our beliefs about the American dream—the idea that our potential for happiness is intricately tied to our freedom to pursue wealth.When you consider that 80 percent of the country thinks they will one day become rich, when in reality less than 10 percent will, it makes sense that many people live life like a race. Corruption, social distrust, and the difficulties of navigating life without a basic social safety net all certainly contribute to America's lackluster performance in the happiness stakes. The World Happiness Report ranks the USA 19th behind a large chunk of Europe, Costa Rica and Israel. But it is the majority ethic, that is true. Can I be happier?”, [Harvard researchers discovered the one thing everyone needs for happier, healthier lives]. While human happiness may be one of philosophy’s most complicated equations, there’s one group of people that may be more driven and obsessed with achieving authentic happiness than any other: American millennials. There was a real anxiety around “happiness.” Finding it didn’t sound fun. The United States is, comparatively, really young. Whippman: Happiness is an instinctive human desire. Q: Do you believe happiness is important? When you leave a place in which invisible social walls hem you in at every turn, and go to a place where your name is meaningless but you are free to make your way, of course the cultural burden of your happiness and success will fall on your shoulders, and — as you are entirely free to invent ways of being happy and successful — of course it will make you crazy. Our society places expectations on each individual and we let those expectations dictate who we are and how we behave. However, I never got a smile back. 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