Happiness: The Wonder Drug of Well-Being
- What is happiness?
- Our Chemical Response to Happiness
- The Health Benefits of a Positive Attitude
- In Conclusion
“Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Happiness: The Wonder Drug of Well-Being
- What is happiness?
- Our Chemical Response to Happiness
- The Health Benefits of a Positive Attitude
- In Conclusion
“Clap along if you know what happiness is to you” – lyrics from “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.
While there have been those among us – such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer – who would argue that happiness is highly overrated, most of us would concur with Pharrell Williams that when we experience joy, we feel like clapping. Whether we personally have something good happen to us, or we make someone else’s day through a random act of kindness, the benefits of happiness can be the gifts that keep on giving. A positive attitude can carry us far up into the clouds when we may have otherwise felt like calling it a day and crawling back into bed.
For those of us with lupus, developing and maintaining a positive attitude may also help to lessen the severity of symptoms you may experience. In individuals who do not suffer from lupus, getting the happiness juices flowing may even decrease the risk of developing an autoimmune disease. A recent Lupus News Today article – “Depression May Increase Risk of Developing Lupus” – discussed how Harvard researchers followed approximately 46,000 women who had a history of depression over a 20-year period. They found that these women were twice as likely to develop lupus within 4.5 years of being diagnosed with depression than those who were not. In this study, depression was “…a causal risk factor for developing SLE, perhaps via altered immune function.”
In a nutshell, being happy can be a benefit for everyone.
What is happiness?
Describing happiness may seem pretty simple at first blush – it’s that feeling of accomplishment and pride when we ace an algebra exam or the gratitude we feel when someone buys us a cup of coffee, or the joy we experience when we hear a child laugh. Happiness is that glimmer of light, hope, and sense that all is well with the world when we do something good for others and see them smile – or break out into a smile ourselves when we achieve another life goal – or receive a hug from our best friend.
It may seem as though we’re taking all the fun out of happiness if we attempt to look at it through a scientific or clinical lens. Happiness should be about puppy breath, shooting stars, and rainbows – not complex neurotransmitters and nerve synapses! Yet, if we have a better understanding of what happens in our body when we experience joy and its important role in our life, we may develop a keener awareness of when it’s missing and what we can do to win it back.
Our Chemical Response to Happiness
What exactly is going on behind the scenes when we see or feel something that fills us with joy? It is intriguing to think the effect of seeing a beautiful work of art, or receiving a hug, or completing a 5K walk for charity can have holistic benefit to our well-being. While viewing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre may fill us with an astounding sense of beauty, the response generated is more than what meets the eye. Chemical responses are triggered deep inside our brain by this seemingly simple act. Why do we say these responses are chemical?
Well, as you know, our nervous system (brain, spinal cord, etc.) are made of cells called neurons. These neurons connect and communicate with each other in order for us to sense our environment, move our muscles and even think our thoughts. Our brains alone contain about 100 BILLION neurons and each of these are connected to, on average, 10 thousand other neurons. That comes to around 1,000,000,000,000,000 connections!! That is approximately the num