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Don T Gloomy: The New Science Of Happiness

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Since the 1990s psychologists have changed their focus to what is called positive psychology, rather than focusing on mental disorders. In doing this, people are able to look more closely at how negative emotions are really affecting people. The mood of a person changes all the time. Their day could be going great, then one small event changes how they look at life and other people. The opposite is also true. A person can be having a bad day and something happens that instantly cheers them up. There are numerous theories on what actually makes people happy. In the article “The New Science of Happiness,” author Claudia Wallis states, “Our overall happiness is not merely the sum of our happy moments minus the sum of our angry or sad ones”(Wallis 3). The truth is that happiness is a complex emotion and is nearly impossible to measure by what happens in a person’s life. Many would think that the ideal situation for a human would be to be …show more content…

It takes away the mental filter in a human’s mind that allows them to realize what they are doing could be unhealthy. According to Susan David, the author of the article “Don’t Worry, Be Gloomy”, “It’s not too big a stretch to suggest that being excessively happy could kill you. You might engage in riskier behaviors like drinking too much, binge eating, skipping birth control, and using drugs”(David 124). Neglecting the negative effects of certain actions could change a person’s life for the worst in a drastic way and could even result in death if taken too far. Therefore, being overly happy and cheerful acts as a blinder for people when it comes to certain things. Because of this blinder, people are more likely to indulge in dangerous activities, leading to destruction and negative outcomes. Overindulging in dangerous activities, like David mentions in her article, are the reasons why people should be careful about how much happiness they seek in

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