There are many people out there, I'm guessing, that wonder how much we really get depressed and to what point would we be considered as happy. This question has often been answered in terms of psychological diagnosis, but the definition of happiness has been made cloudy since the beginning of time. So, how much happy is happy? As children, we experienced happiness in a sort of get/want pattern. Christmas morning, for example, was such a happy time that we couldn't sleep for three days before that morning. As we grew older, our value of physical and material pleasure has decreased greatly and emotional security has become so apparent for our necessities. As children, by receiving a gift or a simple gratification of materialistic wants, we felt loved. But, when entering adolescence (maybe earlier for some people), we learned that love can come without presents and giving. We learn to distrust material objects in their conformation of the love others have for us. We want more.

Many adults and teens have come to the conclusion that happiness does not exist in reality, that it is only an illusion used by society to keep ourselves from taking our own lives. Where would we find the happiness we once had as children? We then come to the conclusion that suffering prevails in the world despite any changes to society and culture. Even money won't give us what we truly desire.

Many have believed since the ancient times that happiness comes from sincere love. But, what kind of love? We can hate and love at the same time. Do we still call that love? Some search for it through social activities and relationships. But, many have found that love cannot be attained for a long period of time, especially from people. We are not perfect humans. There is no such thing as a perfect relationship. So some turn to religion, especially Monotheistic ones that portray a perfect someone who will love you perfectly. A perfect relationsip could be placed in our hands that way. But, still, religion would require us to find love outside God's hands--to come in contact with others. We feel pushed back into the world anyway. We are asked by God to help those who feel unloved. But, when attached to a perfect being at an extremely intimate level, it may become difficult to truly love those around us. We begin to discriminate, to protect ourselves from people we consider evil and sinful. We feel that others will betray us one day, even if we give all the love we can. Then, we fall into what we call depression. We love being loved, but begin hating ourselves for the fact that we find it difficult to love others as much as we would want others to love us.

Eventually, we begin isolating ourselves from our surrounding social life, searching for happiness just like we did when we stepped into this complex social world.

This happens on a daily basis. So, when are we really happy? And when we notice that we can't find the answer to that question, we feel uncertain of its reality. We need a conformation. Thus, we developed a system of classification, of diagnosis, to draw the line between happiness and suffering. Yet, there is no diagnosis criteria for happiness. We focus on the suffering, believing that once that suffering is healed, we would be able to understand and find happiness. Yet, even if one were to be lifted from suffering, the suffering of not suffering at all comes in to replace the emptiness. We still can't find happiness.

So what is happiness? Is it an illusion? A point of view? Or a state of mind? Or all of them? Can happiness BE suffering? Are they one and the same?

Think about this. Maybe you'll be the one to discover the missing line.