Hi

I have just joined this forum after reading Happy for No Reason for the third time - yes, I have read it 3 times !!! I have been down for many years and have suffered from depression a few times. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if it is just lack of happiness or if it is a clinical depression. But I have been diagnosed with depression, given ant-depressant, and asked to see counsellors. None of them really worked. I think at the moment I am not really depressed but I am still not happy.

It is a long story but I will try to make it shorter and tell my story bit by bit. I hope I can get help from this forum.

Before saying my problems, I must say this book is excellent. The first time I read it, it gave me hope - a hope that I will never be depressed again, becasue I know the ways to live happily now. A very special experience for me is that I felt happy when I saw a loving couple in the street - i.e. I was able to share their happiness. This had never happened to me before I read this book. I then read it the second time in order to learn more from it. Recently I read it the third time with an aim to understand even more and do the exercise in the book more thoroughly.

OK, here is my first problem:

I find it difficult to find happiness. Example: a) nowadays people always do facebook/what's app etc to talk to their friends. I do not find it interesting (so never do it). b) 99% people like travelling abroad etc (i.e. holiday). Every time going to a holiday, I just feel either bored or numb and fail to find the meaning of it. As a result, to me this is just a waste of money. c) People often upgrade their phone and are excited about their new "App" or games. I cannot find any interest in it. Because of these (and other reasons), I do not even like to be human. If I was, say, a bird, that would seem much better...

I have been trying the advice on the book. Sometimes it gave me some "booster". But very easily I fell back to my oldself -negative and boring....

It is not easy to separate one problem from others - I think they are linked to each other... perhaps I try to take this "boring me" as a starting point... hope to hear something from you guys/gals.

Thank you in advance.