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You're making a logical error. The article isn't saying that pain is an inevitable result of losing a source of happiness, only that this kind of pain is an indication that something impacted your happiness. If you're having difficulty making the distinction, consider that everyone who lives in Ohio lives in the USA, but not everyone in the USA lives in Ohio.

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I'm not disagreeing that it is an indicator, I'm disagreeing that it's an important one. Or, rather, I'm saying that many people treat it as an important one and they probably shouldn't, because it has some pretty severe and detrimental side-effects when you use it as such an indicator.

I think it's kind of like using urination as a measure of hydration in drinks. Yes, it is actually related, but you can drink less- (or de-) hydrating things (beer!), and, you're not drinking things in order to urinate (well, usually).

So it correlates, but I would say, is not a good measure of what you actually care about.

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