e.g. Video games, Movies, TV, Anime, etc…
It’s not even necessarily a delusion. You can be aware that something is fiction and still enjoy it.
I would think that delusion and happiness are not mutually exclusive. Even if that happiness you’re asking about is a delusion, the persons happiness is still happiness
It’s delusional to be happy because you believe the story is real. It’s not delusional to be happy because the story is happy.
Example: ”We’re so lucky the super heroes saved the world. Imagine what would happen to us if they didn’t”
Does fake happiness even exist?
If you are happy you are happy.
It would be different to discuss if it would be long term sustainable.
Allow me a question about your premise: If there is such a thing as true happiness, what is false happiness then?
Usually people regard using drugs as false happiness. Or like having a parasocial relationship with a famous person.
You can either steal a premade chocolate cake or you can bake one yourself. Neither turns the chocolate cake into a true or false one. It’s still only a chocolate cake.
I think the concept of “false happiness” is given by the ends result of such behavior. Doing fruits gives you a high, but also addiction, so in the long run it’s bad for you. Having a fake relationship does not allow you to develop a real one, thus being a negative over time. True happiness is something that should make you happy in the moment and in the long run.
For this reason, media is true happiness.
I wad happy reading the lord of the rings and I’m happy I read it. The happiness reading produced has kept being a source of additional happiness. I remember Bilbo’s songs, and think about them when I take a walk. I remember small little details, or big plot points, and I’m happy to remember them. Same can be said about films and video games (I am just less passionate about them, but that’s just me)
If our feelings are formed by chemicals and waves in the brain, then what would be false about happiness from those sources? Is it actually false happiness, or is it possibly just happiness derived from stigmatized/alternative sources?
imo, false happiness is something that takes more than it gives. So drugs is good example, maybe they make you feel good but eventually they stop doing that and start taking from you.
They come with a high cost, sure. But this applies to a lot of other things as well (like MTG cards or rescuing animals or learning how play drums really good etc).
with mtg cards, they drain your money so that kind of works too. But rescuing animals or learning something doesnt apply here because it doesnt take anything from you (unless you are kind of insane). Or rather they dont cost too much in terms of invaluable resources like your mental or physical health, just your time which you have to give to everything anyway. Stuff like drugs diminish you being able to enjoy other things and drain your health and relationships. Even if you keep those under control, it still takes something from you, just a bit less.
Though anything can become an addiction too, but if positive things become that then you might have other underlying issues rather than those things themselves causing it.
But none of this matter for the time you were happy.
Another approach: Let’s say you make it up to the age of 80 and then you die. You spend 78 years without love - not loving someone, not being loved by someone. But for two years you loved and were loved. Would this mean that this love was not true love just because it wasn’t “balanced” enough?
again this does not apply to what i was saying, loving someone doesnt cost you. Frankly i cant tell how you are interpreting me, so i dont know how to clarify what i mean.
I guess “true” and “false” are misleading.
Happiness is a release of chemicals to receptors in your brain. If doing something makes you happy, then it makes you happy.
Does using drugs count as true happiness then? Why doesn’t everyone just use drugs to be happy forever?
Well yes, that’s why people do drugs.
Usually doing it forever runs up against other problems like paying for it, holding down a job or health problems
drugs only make you feel happy when you first start, eventually you use them to not feel bad
also when you have a heart attack and almost die and are crippled for life: that’s sad
basically, they only work temporarily and overall makes shit worsedeleted by creator
Yes, all happiness is a release of chemicals in our brain. Dopamine from memes, oxytocin from petting a dog or a good hug, tryptophan from a good meal, endorphins from an intense workout, all are not much different from heroine and are addictive, just not as intense and without extreme physical side effects.
This sounds like a question for your pastor
Well we hallucinate an experience made from nerve bursts so everything is sort of an illusion for us IMO.
Whilst i think happiness derived from fiction is real, I would refrain from letting it be my only source of happiness.
I could think of a million things in the world that i would like to do if I hade the resources to do them. None of them are fictional. But i can experience a glimpse of them through fiction.
I agree on the first part, I am unsure about the meaning of the second one. Reading a book is for me a great source of happiness, and I wouldn’t completely replace it even given infinite resources.
Are you truly happy? Then that’s true happiness, however you got there…
Are you not? Then it’s not, however you got there…
Whatever makes you feel happiness is happiness. It’s all just chemical responses in your brain when you get down to it. If a TV show gives that to you then good. You should obviously try to diversify the things that make you happy but with the way the world is going take it where you find it.
Having fun at a movie, is just exercising a humorous aspect of our intelligence and consciousness, no different from being amused by a joke.
It’s obviously not a delusion if you know it’s fantasy, it’s only a delusion if it’s fictional, but you strongly believe it to be true. Like believing there is life after death.
Fantasy is a part of our imagination, that enable us to speculate on things that may happen in the future, and prepare for them.
We can do that for fun, and speculate on things we very well know will not likely happen. That can be for amusement / entertainment.Delusion is to believe things that are very unlikely to have either already happened or to happen in the future, but believe them despite being contrary to logic and the evidence. Like for instance religions or believing Santa Clause is real.
If a delusion is fixed, and no degree of evidence it is a delusion will persuade the person. It can become much like a psychosis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PsychosisTherefore strongly held beliefs in things that aren’t true, like for instance conspiracy theories or religion can reasonably be considered a degree of mental illness. Which most today will not be willing to acknowledge, but I think maybe in 50 years will become more accepted.
Belief in God is a delusion, a strong belief in God can be borderline psychosis.Having fun at a movie, is just using our imagination for fun and entertainment, instead of the real life problem solving that is probably the evolutionary main reason we have it. Having fun using these skills, helps train them.
So this is perfectly healthy and normal, and has nothing to do with delusions. The story may be fantasy, but the fun is real.Can you learn truths from fiction? Can you feel sad at a happy memory? Can you long for a person who wronged you? Can a good point he made by a bad person? Why does the source matter?
Happiness is literally the result of chemical reactions in the brain. If you’re feeling happy, it’s real.
You’re running into problems because you’re conflating the feeling of happiness with the things that make you feel happy.
There’s no such thing as “true happiness” or “false happiness”.
The things that make people happy rarely have objective value, and everything comes with some kind of cost, even if it’s just time.
The happiness drug users feel is real, but the cost (money/time/health) can be significant. The happiness that you feel from playing games or reading books is real, and the cost (money/time) is less, but still there.
Happiness is always real - just be mindful of the cost!
Humans have always understood our experience through stories and myths. Literally every civilization throughout history has them. It’s the people who refuse to consume any fiction that I don’t understand. Even when a story is entirely fictional, surely there is still meaning in metaphor and juxtaposition and human understanding to be found.
