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Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

>I have read psychologists saying that "happiness as default state" is a social construct myth of modern times.

Psychologists are what's the actual social construct myth of modern times.

>You cannot be happy all the time

That's not what "happiness as default state" implies though. It's about happiness being the disposition you opt for, as opposed to wallowing in misery and seeing fault in everything as your baseline.

"Default state" precisely conveys that it's not about "all the time". Just what you should strive to start from and return to.

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Nope, its still vast majority of situation, not a healthy setup for most people. Is being content with one's life a state of happiness or just state of content?

We are splitting hairs here but since happiness is considered the ultimate goal and state (what's beyond that if its not the end?), I would say aim for being content with your life as a baseline, jump to an actual happiness when stars align and revert back.

Its cool enough place to be and definitely more maintainable long term, and as mentioned a seldom dip to misery is a very valuable correction and reminder to all how fleeting this all is.

Psychologists are a myth?

I suspect they mean that psychologists are more a problem than a useful profession.

They certainly are when they're poorly trained and not held to proper academic standards.

I've had more than one licensed psychologist attempt to proselytize to me. Granted, my location is part of the problem, but it still should never have happened. There are other, less rigorously trained people you can go to for that kind of thing and they're a dime a dozen. It objectively made things worse for me as some of my most major issues directly involve religion(s) pushed upon me as a child.

Not their existance, their utility

Do you believe the same thing about psychiatrists? How are we to deal with mental illness?

>How are we to deal with mental illness?

Ineffectively, if the current state-of-the-art is any indication :(

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