Patience: Is It Possible to Find Happiness?

[alat]

I think we are all trying to reach the same thing, here on this community or everyone, everywhere. We all want to be happy, but is it possible? After years of anxiety and fear and sadness, I forgot that it is possible to be happy, that it is an existing condition. I am not exaggerating when I say it has completely left my mind that life doesn't have to be this way it is, that there are people who are happy, people who don't worry for weeks when they see a speck of dust in the air for a moment; people who do not experience a near-heart attack when their neighbor's kids are playing outside; people who do not think every day about how they can survive without an anxiety attack.

Is it possible that patience will be rewarded by happiness? And when? When most the years of my life are spent worrying about things that most people don't even consider?

[JasmineJaz]

Can you still feel the little bits of happiness? like when eating a delicious meal, walking under clear sky and surrounded by tree, petting stray cats, etc.

I have something hovering on my mind, and feels unsettled all the time. I'm trying to focus on the small things that brings me joy.

[alat in reply to JasmineJaz]

I wouldn't call them happiness. I think they're temporary pleasures. I used to feel them, like when I buy something I want or go out with friends, but not anymore.

[Raggedy-Ann]

I think we deal with so much sadness that we barely get to enjoy the good stuff, or it is just a break for a moment from the dark feelings. When I hear myself laugh, really laugh I get to hear something my voice does so rarely I try to hold that sound, it is a long lost part of me. I am honest with myself about the pursuit of happiness. I have not achieved my former idea of happiness. I changed to a good enough for me happiness, something I can achieve. It's about managing my expectations.

[alat in reply to Raggedy-Ann]

Perhaps it is. Maybe I am being too entitled? I always thought that after losing my childhood, adolescence, and now youth to anxiety and sadness, surely a great happiness is in store for me? But maybe you're right, maybe I shouldn't expect much?

[Against_the_current]

Yeah i feel that. This hits. There are people out there who don't live in a near heart attack all the time. Who can go to work. Who aren't staying up at night. Who are happy. But first these People aren't this special and deep and creative and emphathetic and second happiness is something that the more you chase, the more it runs. Let it flow naturally. Focus on yourself, don't compare. Happiness will come

[alat in reply to Against_the_current]

At this point, I am treating it more like a break than a state of mind. I just need it for a minute, just to be relieved of all the worries.

[Against_the_current in reply to alat]

Sameeee

[designguy]

I had high-functioning anxiety disorder for years with fleeting moments of happiness. When I started getting help and tried medication I was eventually prescribed Klonopin and for me it was like a switch had been flipped and I suddenly was able to feel what "normal" felt like. It really helped and I still had a ways to go and a lot to learn, process, grow and heal.

For me, I don't think it's patience but persistence and continuing to get to the core of your issues and getting the right kind of understanding and help to heal them.