Telling someone 'You shouldn't be sad because millions of people in the world have worse lives than you' is equivalent to telling them 'You shouldn't be happy because millions of people have better lives than you'. Amirite?

+353 Telling someone 'You shouldn't be sad because millions of people in the world have worse lives than you' is equivalent to telling them 'You shouldn't be happy because millions of people have better lives than you'. Amirite?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

interesting. Can't get my thoughts straight on this one.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

No probs. Do you mean like, sadness is not equal to happiness, as happiness is something that we want for the people in our lives?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Hm, I agree. But most of the time when people say that it's to show that a lot of people don't have what they have, for example a family or clean drinking water or a home.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Telling anybody how they should or shouldn't feel is a dick move, but I disagree that they are similar things. People don't wallow in happiness, they wallow in self pity. Most people I know tend to focus on the negative aspects of their lives and ignore the positive ones. I think the "it could always be worse" mindset is a fantastic and useful thing to have because with it you learn to put things into perspective. This probably only has some relevancy overall, but I remember reading something about how depression and suicide rates are higher in first world countries than anywhere else in the world. When you live in a cushy society, you are more likely to fixate on (sometimes comparatively trivial) problems. I'm absolutely in no way saying that people who are "privileged" should not be allowed to feel sad/depressed about their problems, but I do think that a lot of people cry about a lot of stupid shit and I honestly feel it's beneficial to keep that in mind.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I should've phrased that differently; I suppose you can wallow in happiness. I'm not sure why I assigned such a negative connotation to that word.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I'm sure people who say that are only doing so because they would rather look on the bright side and truly appreciate what they have. Who wants to think about how bad their life is and how much better they could have it? Or worse, watch someone else wallow in self-pity? Overall, its just a bad a experience for everyone when someone can't get over how bad they have it. It's childish and immature.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Well, yeah. But the first one sounds more encouraging

by Anonymous 11 years ago

If you live your life with that mindset that there's always someone better you are going to lead a very sad life.

by Anonymous 11 years ago