Welcome to Ask a Therapist, a monthly column where a licensed professional—not Dr. Google, not your judgmental co-worker, not your college roommate who tends to shoot from the hip—gives honest answers to the big questions that are keeping you up at night. Here, we have Sherry Amatenstein, an NYC-based therapist, author, and editor of the anthology How Does That Make You Feel: True Confessions from Both Sides of the Therapy Couch. Today she's diving into all your latest questions.
Why is everyone happier than me?
Several times a month, a patient will ask the question you pose. Typically, my reply is along the lines of: What criteria are you using to define happiness? and Is this declaration the result of a poll of all the humans on the planet?
To address the first concern, people often think that once they climb up to the Grand Summit where the Happiness flag is planted, they will no longer suffer from depression, anxiety, self-doubt, rage, jealousy, and other difficult emotions.
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