do you think it is really possible to achieve true unadultered happiness, does true happiness even exist? is there pressure in our society to always be happy/find happiness, yet we don´t know exactly what being happy is supposed to look like and wonder how/if our lives could be happier?
it seems people on pills have a higher state of happiness then regular people, but is this higher state acheiveable without pills? irrelevant or religion or lack thereof, what are your thoughts?

do you think it is really possible to achieve true unadultered happiness, does true happiness even exist?
Unadulterated happiness will be achieved in the after life. In life it is an impossible dream.

Yes, for moments at a time we can have true happiness, but not constantly.

is there pressure in our society to always be happy/find happiness, yet we don´t know exactly what being happy is supposed to look like and wonder how/if our lives could be happier?

Yes there is a myth out there that everyone can live 'Happily ever after' - The fairy Tale ending is impossible to meet in life. The best we can ever hope for is contentment with moments of joy and happiness. Unfortunately we all have different views on what makes us happy, therefore things get pretty sketchy on what happiness realy is.

Our society has created the image of happiness:

5 bed room house, 3 cars, 2.5 children, a picket fence - an ideal, not attainable by all.

To be happy is to be at an extreme of the spectrum of human emotion - and other extreme is sadness (depression) which we all know is an illness.

Our society has failed to understand the need for the full spectrum of emotion. Doctors have found that anger (in moderation of course) serves as a stress relieve valve.

it seems people on pills have a higher state of happiness then regular people, but is this higher state achievable without pills?

What appears to be a thing doesn't mean that it is. I am actually slightly afraid of the Paxil People - they seem inhuman at times. The idea that a person is able to smile through everything is kind of scary to me.

This higher state is achievable - if you hold with paradise after death.


irrelevant or religion or lack thereof, what are your thoughts

In short we are created to suffer.

And be angry....

And afraid....

And happy....

We need to seek a balance between all of these emotions. Failure to understand that all emotions are important to character development and to mental/emotional healthy is to deny our humanity and risk death of our humanity.

Contentment in life is what I have. I am content with the way things are.

This doesn't mean I am happy with every aspect of my life - there are the minor issues, the aggravations, but there are also the moments of bliss and joy.

It is called balance - I fear that our society has set high goals on happiness and has deemed the rest of the emotions as being something bad or dirty.

David

I agree that it is going to be a happier life after you are dead than the one we live now. I think that is the only place to achieve happiness. I know now that you can't find it in a pill. I had been on paxil for awhile among other things and thought I was happy, but go off the drug and you lean the truth. So I will have to agree with you on this David.

According to Aristotle, happiness lies in contemplating the highest things. On a natural level, this would be contemplating God and the first cause of things of the world. On a supernatural level, happiness would be the beatific vision.

Can there be happiness here? In order to contemplate well, a person should have both the practical and intellectual virtues. The question then is whether it is possible for a person to be truly virtuous here on Earth.

I don't think it is possible to achieve perfect happiness for any extended length of time.

I do think it is possible, however, to escape negative feelings for an extended period of time - but only if one is willing to give up the highs of happiness in order to reach the kind of equilibrium in which you don't suffer.

Ever watched otters? They seemed to have figured out the secret of happiness. What do they have that we don't? Simplicity in existance? Ingorance? A type of fish which excretes an oil which induces a state of euphoria when injested orally from a live specimen? Perhaps we'll never know...but then maybe, one day, the otters will tell us.