The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In any given year one in ten adults lives with clinical depression, and more than a third of us will have an anxiety disorder at some point. Almost one in two will seriously consider suicide, and one in ten will attempt it. Russ Harris opens with those numbers to kill a myth: lasting happiness is not the normal human condition. What’s normal is weather — an ever-changing flow of feelings, pleasant and painful. And the research is blunt: the harder we chase the pleasant ones and dodge the rest, the more likely we are to end up depressed and anxious.

Russ Harris on SummaryShelf

The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living