WEBVTT - What can you do to make yourself really unhappy?

0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.760
<v Speaker 1>Streaming TV shows and movies directly to your home is

0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:05.560
<v Speaker 1>a breeze with Netflix. As a Netflix member, you can

0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:09.040
<v Speaker 1>instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, Mac, mobile device,

0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.440
<v Speaker 1>or television. Get a free thirty day trial membership. Go

0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.200
<v Speaker 1>to Netflix dot com, slash stuff and sign up today.

0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.160
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff from house stuff works dot com where

0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:30.760
<v Speaker 1>smart happens. Hi Marshall Brain with today's question, what can

0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.760
<v Speaker 1>you do to make yourself really unhappy? There have been

0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.879
<v Speaker 1>lots of articles about happiness. In fact, it could be

0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:41.559
<v Speaker 1>said that there's a growing science of happiness because so

0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.160
<v Speaker 1>much research is being done into it. But what about

0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:49.160
<v Speaker 1>the flip side unhappiness? How do you make yourself really unhappy?

0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:51.600
<v Speaker 1>And the idea is that if you know how to

0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:55.480
<v Speaker 1>make yourself unhappy, you could avoid those things, flip it

0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:01.320
<v Speaker 1>around and find happiness by undoing unhappiness. It turns out

0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:05.000
<v Speaker 1>that there's at least three ways to make yourself unhappy

0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:10.480
<v Speaker 1>fairly quickly. The first way is through health problems. Somebody

0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.920
<v Speaker 1>who's sick generally is not happy. Now. A lot of

0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.240
<v Speaker 1>health problems you have no control over. For example, if

0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:19.520
<v Speaker 1>you fall off a ladder and break your hip, you

0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.160
<v Speaker 1>don't have a lot of control over that, except not

0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.920
<v Speaker 1>getting up on ladders. Another thing would be cancer. If

0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:27.840
<v Speaker 1>you get cancer, a lot of times you don't have

0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.559
<v Speaker 1>control over that. But there are many health issues where

0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.920
<v Speaker 1>you do have a lot of control. And one of

0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.640
<v Speaker 1>those health issues is obesity. So if you want to

0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.319
<v Speaker 1>make yourself unhappy, you would become a couch potato. You

0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.760
<v Speaker 1>would get obese, you would start having all the problems

0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:48.440
<v Speaker 1>that go with obesity, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes potentially,

0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:53.040
<v Speaker 1>and through that process you could make yourself really unhappy.

0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.680
<v Speaker 1>So if you want to be happy, you would probably

0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:00.880
<v Speaker 1>avoid lifestyle choices that lead to unhealthiness. Another way to

0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.840
<v Speaker 1>make yourself unhappy, surprisingly has to do with work. It

0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.480
<v Speaker 1>turns out that a lot of people right now are

0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.959
<v Speaker 1>not happy because they don't have enough work to do.

0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.720
<v Speaker 1>And it goes both ways. You can get unhappy by overworking,

0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:16.880
<v Speaker 1>by doing too much work, a lot more than you

0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.919
<v Speaker 1>want to be doing. But you can also be unhappy

0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:24.200
<v Speaker 1>by doing too little work, by being underutilized. And here

0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.560
<v Speaker 1>the solution is not necessarily quite so easy, because you

0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.400
<v Speaker 1>know there are big box retailers who are posting jobs

0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.679
<v Speaker 1>right now and getting two thousand applicants for a single job.

0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.440
<v Speaker 1>Things like that, there isn't enough work to go around.

0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.200
<v Speaker 1>But if you are finding yourself in an underwork situation,

0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:45.680
<v Speaker 1>one possibility might be volunteering somewhere. Maybe helping others to

0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.000
<v Speaker 1>help yourself would be the philosophy. It might lead to

0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.960
<v Speaker 1>more happiness, not necessarily ecstasy. But what if you want

0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:57.040
<v Speaker 1>to be really unhappy? There's an article out recently called

0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.960
<v Speaker 1>German Studies finds happiness is based on choices, not genes,

0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:07.560
<v Speaker 1>and it offers this tip quote. Relationships are very important,

0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.120
<v Speaker 1>But according to Wagner and his colleagues, choosing a neurotic

0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.280
<v Speaker 1>partner is a sure fire way to be unhappy. This

0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.120
<v Speaker 1>brings up the obvious question what is neurotic means? So

0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.000
<v Speaker 1>I went to a place called psychology World dot com

0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:25.639
<v Speaker 1>and looked it up. Here's their definition. They respond emotionally

0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.359
<v Speaker 1>to events that would not affect most people, and their

0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.960
<v Speaker 1>reactions tend to be more intense than normal. They are

0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.800
<v Speaker 1>more likely to interpret ordinary situations is threatening and minor

0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:41.160
<v Speaker 1>frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Their negative emotional reactions tend to

0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:45.200
<v Speaker 1>persist for unusually long periods of time, which means they

0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.840
<v Speaker 1>are often in a bad mood. These problems in emotional

0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:54.200
<v Speaker 1>regulation can diminish a neurotics ability to think clearly, make decisions,

0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.440
<v Speaker 1>and cope effectively with stress. Well, you can look at

0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.640
<v Speaker 1>that definition and you can see why that would make

0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:05.040
<v Speaker 1>someone unhappy. You may have heard the description drama queen

0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.480
<v Speaker 1>or drama king. Yes, it's easy to see how a

0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:11.560
<v Speaker 1>partner like that would drag you down. If you want

0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.960
<v Speaker 1>to be unhappy, hook up with a neurotic person who's

0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.839
<v Speaker 1>unable to think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress.

0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.520
<v Speaker 1>That does seem like a good recipe for disaster. If

0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:26.120
<v Speaker 1>you'd like to perform a trifecta of unhappiness, you can

0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.480
<v Speaker 1>put all three of these together. You could make choices

0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.640
<v Speaker 1>that make you unhealthy, you could work too much or

0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.360
<v Speaker 1>too little, and simultaneously, you could hook up with someone

0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.320
<v Speaker 1>who's neurotic. Putting those three things together would be a

0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:43.760
<v Speaker 1>surefire way to have a bad day for more illness

0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.200
<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics. Does that how stuff works

0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.279
<v Speaker 1>dot com and don't forget to check out the brain

0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.680
<v Speaker 1>stuff blog on the house stuff works dot com home page.

0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.440
<v Speaker 1>You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter

0:04:53.839 --> 0:05:00.479
<v Speaker 1>at brain stuff HSW. This episode of brain Stuff is

0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.039
<v Speaker 1>brought to you by Linda dot Com. Linda dot Com

0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.560
<v Speaker 1>offers thousands of engaging, easy to follow video tutorials taught

0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.760
<v Speaker 1>by industry experts to help you learn software, creative and

0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.640
<v Speaker 1>business skills. Membership starts at twenty five dollars a month

0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.479
<v Speaker 1>and provides unlimited seven access. Tried Linda dot Com free

0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.480
<v Speaker 1>for seven days by visiting Linda dot com slash brain

0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:19.960
<v Speaker 1>Stuff