Oooh, you're Czech. That explains a lot ;=P I almost said specifically I felt so at home in Prague, now I wish I had.

We can discuss until the cows come home about America and obsessing with happiness, but all you have to do is go on Amazon and look up variations of "Happy" and there's a whole lot of stuff out there.

Granted there is about depression as well.

"The Happiness Project" was a massive best-seller. And I do read her blog, there's some good Cognitive Behavioral Therapy stuff there.

I wish I could find it now, but I read a great essay once about how the French concept of Joie de vivre is more complex than is usually thought, it's not about being happy go lucky, it's about finding the joy in life despite the suffering, despite our awareness of our own mortality.

"That does not mean we spend our days crying and whining about how life is valley of tears. We are just cynical as hell and snarky and drink bit too much and laugh only at inappropriate things."

That's interesting. Those are pretty much my coping mechanisms. But I do think functioning is the dividing line. If you are so depressed you can't laugh, or cry, or even get out to meet your friends to have that drink is when it gets scary, and of course when someone is in that state they can't see anything good about it at all. Understandably.