Happiness
December 5th, 2008
A GoodTherapy.org News Update Presented by Daniel Brezenoff, LCSW
A new study to be published Friday in the British periodical BMJ offers surprising – though unreplicated and thus tentative – findings about what makes people happy. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego, found that having neighbors, friends, and even friends of friends of friends, increases the chances of being happy profoundly – more than coming into large sums of money, and, oddly perhaps, even more than having a happy spouse.
The effect was strongly correlated with the geographical distance from the happy person, with happiness increasing more the closer geographically the happy person in one’s life is. So friends who are happy seem to contribute to one’s sense of well-being if they live in the same city; the effect is far less apparent if they are distant.
How this works is unclear, and some researchers not involved in the study warn that correlation must not be confused with cause.
Another study in Friday’s BMJ, by Ethan Cohen-Cole, an economist, and Jason M. Fletcher, professor of public health at Yale, will criticize the methodology of the Harvard-UCSD team, pointing out that similar correlations have been found with conditions like acne, headaches and height, but disappear when other variables, such as environmental factors that friends or neighbors have in common, are accounted for.
Still, the study is so broad and its outcome so statistically strong that more research is undoubtedly warranted. It tracked more than 4,700 people for 20 years, and found that having a happy friend could increase the chances of being happy oneself by as much as 75%.
“Your happiness depends not just on your choices and actions, but also on the choices and actions of people you don’t even know who are one, two and three degrees removed from you,” said Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study. “There’s kind of an emotional quiet riot that occurs and takes on a life of its own, that people themselves may be unaware of. Emotions have a collective existence — they are not just an individual phenomenon.”
©Copyright 2008 by Daniel Brezenoff, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, therapist in Long Beach, CA. All Rights Reserved.
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Comments
Some of my happiest times are when I am surrounded by others that I know love and care for me. Not only does this include times when I am with my family but also at places like church. This makes me feel content and happy.
I totally agree with this article. I have friends I work with, but sadly, no close friends to hang out and gossip with. I really do miss this and I believe that all the above works with one another to create a happy sense of being
When you are down, your friends are there to pick you up and try to make you happy. That is why it is always healthy to have if not one, but many close friends around. It is always nice to have friends that are positive and happy instead of ones that are always negative and unhappy.
I dont agree with this to a large extent. I’ve always had great friends in my life. My best friend is 2 streets away from where I live. However, I went thro a really bad patch in life and was in therapy for depression post my divorce. All my friends rallied around me but I still went thro a v depressive year.
Being able to simply chat with a friend is a privilege these days in this busy world. During the first few years of marriage I was very bored as my husband was in the navy. My friends kept the wind in my sails by keeping in touch regularly and meeting up frequently. I believe that never brought temptation to my door by means of an affair.
I am sorry to hear that Michael… I guess it is correct to say that whatever causes the depression really depends on how tough it was for the person who had to go through it. I do agree tho, that it does help to have friends around when you need them, but I can’t honestly say this is the case for everyone.
Unfortunately I think that there are some of us who are going to be predisposed to going thru depressive episodes regardless of how strong a connection we have between family and friends. But I do think that having that support system around may help to alleviate the severity of depression for some people and perhaps also shorten the amount of time that you may be down or incapacitated. This is just a thought.
There have been times in my life when I have had numerous friends and times when I retained only a very few close ones. And I can honestly say that friendships make me so happy. These are the ones I lean on for support and comfort in my life and I know that they do the same with me. We are a network, a surrogate family for one another and I do not know that I could survive without them. Sometimes you just need someone to listen or a shoulder to cry on and that is what having friends and being a good friend is all about.
We are what we want to be- does that make sense? When you think yourself happy you will be and vice versa.
I am Irish and life is all about my family and friends. However, there have been times when I needed to be alone to be able to think straight. The pressures that an active social life can bring are different. One starts feeling obligated to please and concur with the widest view.
Lizzie, while I agree with you and research bears out what you say to some degree, I think it’s a bit glib, especially in the context of a therapy website, to say that happiness is simply a choice. It doesn’t sound like you’ve ever experienced clinical depression. I assure you, for people who get depressed, there is no easy choice, and no easy answer.
Clinical depression can kill unless treated. My sister committed suicide recently after years of suffering with clinical depression. She was a normal child and developed it only in her late teens. I do know that happiness was not a choice in her life. We all tried our best but depression is a serious ailment.
I lost my job because of my boss. She sabotaged me completely because she hated my popularity and my love interest was hers too. Sounds like a sleazy novel but truth can be weirder than fiction. I lost my peace of mind and it took a great deal of support from family and friends to restore the confidence I had in myself. I still shudder when I think of those depressive days.
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