Happiness Is an Emotion Everyone Experiences in Their Life

Some people  appear to be happier more often than others. Weather or not this is just the way they are appearing externally or are they really are happy is difficult to tell. With stress being on the rise and depression at an all-time many individual are afflicted with ailments that you may not now they have. Some people manage to put on a brave face even though they are secretly having issues in their life. With depression and drug use on the rise it appears as if achieving happiness is getting further and further away compared to times before. Now through the latest in psychological sciences we, as human beings, are able to measure happiness. This has led to the ability to correctly diagnose emotion problems in people that in times past would have been unnoticed. People are finally able to get the help they need.

Now greater emphasis is placed on mental health instead of just on physical. Stress has many negative impacts on a person’s well-being. Innovations in medical science has allowed for better treatments of both physical and emotion problems. Through medications and support groups help has never been more available to the masses. Some people are still suffering in silence with these problems because they are afraid to admit they have a problem or that they need help. Mental problems in times past were stigmatized and people looked down on those with these problems. Now however people are more sympathetic and understanding of mental health. There are some people however that still feel the need to keep this matter private. These people often use alternative methods to help with their problems. For most this takes the form of self-medicating.

Depression is defined as by the American Psychiatric Association as “a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act” (“Warning Signs of Mental Illness” 2017). Depression leads to altered behavior that can cause serious problems for both the individual experiencing it, and the ones around them. For many people suffering with this mental disorder it ultimately ends with either successful management or self-harm in the form of suicide. With suicide on a steady increase in the United States mental health has become a huge issue. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention there were an estimated 1,300,000 suicide attempts in 2017 with about 47,173 being successful (“Suicide Statistics” 2017). The vast majority of these attempts were by adults ranging in age from 45 to 54 years in age. Unfortunately, in times past, this disease often went untreated. Now through medical research we have a greater understanding of what this illness is and the symptoms associated with it. Now mental health is given the same amount of important that physical health receives. Through modern medicine and mental heath social groups this disorder has become more manageable.

Technological advancements in communication as-well-as the modernization going on in the world today is one of the root causes of this increase in emotional problems. People are able to see the way other people are living their lives. In most cases this is a filtered version of the life’s they are living. Only the good times are making their way onto social media. When individuals start to compare their lives to that of others it causes a low feeling of self-worth. According to “Journal of Experimental Psychology” people who passively use social media, such as scrolling through there news feed, have been linked to depression. The root cause of this depression is from either using social media because one is depression or the depression is caused by social media. No clear evidence pointed either way. Either way the rise in communicational technology has given rise to depression and other emotional problems in the world.

Other problems arising from social media involve the way we perceive beauty. We see others online with photos that have been altered and assume that they are real. Unrealistic images of the human form unattainable by any other method than by altering images are put online and other outlets such as advertisements. This has led to individuals having a bad self-image. These people go to extreme lengths to get this beauty. Some things are small like dieting but others are more serious. Plastic surgery is one of these extremes. On the upper end of the scale of plastic surgeries individuals get their whole body altered to the point that they are distorted from the person they were. For many of these people going through these procedures they think that it will make them more beautiful only to realize it did not. For others on the lower end of the spectrum in plastic surgery people only get minor surgeries to correct what they believe are flaws in their appearance.

The most dangerous outcomes of poor self-image are eating disorders, and self-harming. With eating disorders, the thought is that by not eating you are able to lose weight and be thin and beautiful. This in and of itself is a form of self-harming behavior brought about by having bad thoughts about yourself and what you are worth. In most cases if left untreated the individuals succumb to their disorders. To some people they believe that you are only valuable if you look good and overlook what they are capable of doing. Social media has become one of the major contributors to the rise in emotional problems in the world.

Stress and depressions can also cause several disorders with your physical health. According to the Center for Dieses Control heart disease is the number one killer in the United States of America (“Heart Disease Statistics & Maps”, 2018). The estimated deaths related to heart disease are 600,000 each year (Kochanek et al). These diseases have close association with stress, and depression. Through modern medicine the link between mental health on your overall well-being has been discovered. With this discovery more, attention is being placed on emotional heath in place of just physical health. Stress can also have negative affects on your blood glucose level. This happens in by either letting stress encourage bad behavior such as eating too much, or by raising blood glucose levels. Other health related problems linked to stress include early death, faster aging, intense headaches, or intestinal problems such as ulcers. For many people these conditions go untreated because they are unwilling to talk about these emotional problems that are causing stress.

For those people suffering with mental disorders they seek to stop the problem through self-medication. This self-medication in most cases take the form or either alcohol or drug use. Drug and alcohol are a temporary but affective way, for some, to make the pain stop. This leads to long term substance abuse. In many cases the person self-medicating falls victim to overdosing. Drug overdoses are fatal if not treated right away. Alcohol abuse however is a much slower process when affecting heath. Over time the effects of long-term alcohol abuse can cause reversable brain cell death as-well-as severe damage to the liver. In the sort term alcohol, if drank in enough quantities, can kill as quickly as drug overdoses can. Both of these alternatives to professional help can cause severe harm to not only themselves but to others as well. In many cases of drunk driving the person who was drinking is not killed. Then the thought of killing an innocent person added to the depression and worsens the problem. This often contributes to others affected by your decisions to become depressed themselves.

There are some drugs that can help to lower stress and anxiety. The most recognizable drug associated with stress relief is marijuana. This drug has properties that give the user and calm feeling. In testing it has been shown to help with many kinds of problems, both physical and mental, and does not have the negative side affects common among synthetic medications. Marijuana is still illegal as far as federal laws are concerned. Many states like California have allowed for medical use of marijuana. Drugs such as Paroxetine Hydrochloride known as Paxil have been used to treat depression for many years. This prescription drug is not without side affects however. This legal drug has been linked to seizures, irregular heartbeat, and chest pain.

All of these methods of coping with depression are not health for people in most cases. While substances such as medication or marijuana are able to help with the problems it is not the ideal way to deal with it. Drugs and alcohol are only temporarily going to soften the problem. The problem is not going to go away by these methods. The best way for people to deal with these issues is for use to talk about them. Through communication we can find the root of the problem and get help to solve the issue permanently. Mental health problems were not a major problem hundreds of years ago. I know this is mostly because there were no diagnoses of these problems back then but we as humans have made the problem bigger. With greater access to the internet and seeing how others live their life we have become more focused on what we do not have. We should be thankful for what have and who we get to share it with. We as a society need to stop comparing how we look or what we do to others.