Why are so many people not happy ?

Question

wondering.. how someone can have so much, yet be so dissatisfied ?

Answer 1

Myself I near nothing and if I could find work I think I would be happier.  :)

Others are not happy because stuff doesn't make a person whole.

Answer 2

I think you hit on it when you said "have so much".  Have so much what?  Large mortgages, big bills, car payments, cost of food.   We lose touch with what really matters in life; family, values and God. When we have to be so worried about keeping up in life, go, go, go.  Just so we can pay the bills.  I know it sounds silly, but sometimes when I watch those National Geographic shows about tribes in some far away part of the World, they look like they are much happier than we are.  Even though they don't have a fancy house or even many clothes.  They do have family and a connection with each other.  I think if we could figure out how to get that back into our life/culture we'd all be much happier, balanced people.

Answer 3

I personally think it's because people think they'll be happy when they have the stuff that society tells them that they need in order to be happy. And when they get this stuff, they realise it's got nothing to do with happiness so they get lost in this mad world with no idea what to do to be happy. So they plod along doing what society tells them they should be doing and they slowly start believing that this sad existence is life albeit a very unhappy and unfulfilled one....

Answer 4

Because its only contentment that  leads to happiness.

Desire is the root cause of misery

If u have many desires, u may become sad at one moment or another.

There r many ups & downs in life, & if one doesn't cope up with challenges, this too leads to sadness

Answer 5

Possessions does not equal happiness. By possessions I mean anything you can acquire.   If you were to never receive another possession, would that alter your happiness?  Very few realize how good they have it. Most take thing for granted, we're always noticing how green the grass is on the other side of the fence.  

I don't know if it's necessarily "happy" or "not happy" as is it satisfied or unsatisfied with ones status, in the community, work, school, church, business or life.

Most people assume that if they can just get one more "thing" one more "this or that" then...and only then will they be fulfilled. They will discover the truth, they will become happy,  all their worries will be vanished. Unfortunately it doesn't happen that way, and they continue on their quest.

Answer 6

I believe that the reason people are unhappy is because no one is truly in control of their destiny.  In our youth we are trained to conform to a certain ideal and believe what we are told without question in order to be accepted socially.  As we mature into adolecents, we become capable of deeper thinking and with that comes doubt and then shortly after you begin to question the validity of what we learned as kids.  Then after 13 years of mandatory school that sucked 5 days a week since we were 5, we become adults and either college, employment or both await us and in time we realize that it's downhill from there on out.  Day in and day out were forced to do more and more things  we dislike.  Pressured to marry and procreate to seem "normal" until  soon you juggle the stress of family and working for what never seems to be enough money to stay above water with the debt incurred having a family.  Periodically the stress of just trying to live gets so great that conflict erupts at home where the next generation is growing up.  More than half of the time life breaks apart the family through divorce and everyone is more miserable still.

Most depressing to me though is the realization I reached that life truly has no point.  We have no control over our futures because our choices are already made before we even realized we had a choice to make.  Our personality and morality influence our decisions so completely, like whether we rob the elderly or volunteer at a senior center.  The path we walk is pre-ordained, but there's no omniscient divine plan behind it.  The fate is guided by strictly random chance, for i no longer find within me the capacity to believe that any type of Gods exist in this realm despite studying everything from christianity and islam, to more obscure faiths like wicca and celtic mythologies.  Without any reason or meaning in life we cannot feel purpose and that leaves us in a state of apathy

Answer 7

I feel that way sometimes.

It's simply the lifestyles we lead nowadays, no matter what social class you belong to, people are out there doing things they dont really want to be doing, but are forced to due to social pressure and in order to be able to survive.  Such as people being stuck doing jobs, or studying uni courses they are not pleased with, simply because it is what was expected of them by their families and the communities they lived in, or because they need the money.

People also are losing emotional connection with each other. Today most people interact at a very superficial and physical level, and many of the relationships whether they are friendships or more intimate ones are based on more superficial aspects without any real connection, so people sometimes feel as if they were alone.

People obsession with money and material possessions. People actually believe that material possessions can fill up those empty spaces in their lives, when in reality it can, and it never will, so people keep on trying to acquire more and more, put all their effort to make more money, and in the end when they reach that goal, they realize that it hasn't changed how they feel, making them feel increasingly dissatisfied.

Families splitting up, family members each doing their own thing without spending any time together, divorces and separations tearing families apart and dysfunctional behavior of some family members such as alcoholic parents, lonely children, recklessly rebellious teens etc.

And lastly, he decreasing faith in God. Each day people seem to have less and less faith in religion and God in general, which causes frustration in many.

Answer 8

I think the simple answer is that we are unfulfilled. We feel that we don't have enough power or control over our lives.

I'll give you an example. I'm in a job that bores me. It's just too slow and chaotic. I'm here for the money and because the commute is short. I'm almost finished with a masters. I loved the last job I had. I only left because the commute (traffic) was ridiculous. My last job was challenging and real work. I felt like I was making a real difference. Here I feel like I'm just here because of requirements for certification. I'm looking for another job (have been) and have found nothing. It's depressing.  I spend a lot of time at work. Is it a crime to want to do something real and meaningful and to feel valued? I do to an extent. I'm not alone. Everyone here is in this position. Some people can accept it better than I can. I'm also one of the youngest people here. I'm not ready to have this be my last job. Some nights I get so depressed at thought of returning here. TG for YA because I would have left had it not been for here.

I'm an overachiever. I believe in excellence. I'm not a slacker.

This environment is poison to me.

edit: I have done some good things here that needed to be done but it's slow. I don't think I've done anything extraordinary. It's just they are so behind. Like I said I am an overachiever. I'm about giving up giving new ideas because they don't go anywhere. I have files and files of stuff. I'm in an MBA program. I'm doing well. 3.88 GPA. I understand why things are the way they are. It makes sense, economically and financially for the industry and what they produce. They could make some minor adjustments but it may not be worth it. I don't know what the grand plan is.

Bills and everything are out of control. So much is outside my control. I have a lot of energy. I'm not alone. There are a lot of us underutilized.

Answer 9

2 much stuff

Answer 10

human nature.