Have you had a happy life

[ElvisGrace]

On balance would you say, more good than bad?

Definitely. I've had some awful times but on balance I feel very lucky.

Not really , quite awful due to my own appauling taste in men.
However simce getting rid of my ex and peri menopause removing my sex drive im much happier relationship free

I'm much (very much) closer to my end than my beginning

While I've had, like most, a few bad times, overall it's been a blast.

Yes, most of my life but finding it tough at the mo but mostly lucky

No. But I am really trying because I have been blessed with my daughter. 🥺❤️

Yes. Apart from a catastrophic event relatively early in life, I've had a very happy life and realise I'm very lucky. I feel grateful every day.

I’m not long out of a twenty year abusive relationship.

However, I brought my son up the way I wanted (I did a good job of shielding him from what I was going through) and he had a stable childhood.

I’m now with my soul mate which is an incredible experience, I have a cool job, nice friends and hopefully a good few years left in me!

Yes. There’s been good & bad times but overall it’s been good and very privileged.

Definitely. More so as an adult even though like for everyone it hasnt been without its challenges and heartbreaking times. But I’m a glass half full kind of person and try and find positives where I can. I call it playing the glad game!

Definitely. I've gone through some awful things I wouldn't wish on anyone, but I have a lovely family and some really lovely, solid friends. I have good health - physically, mentally and emotionally.

I've been blessed with resilience and a positive outlook and find it quite easy to feel gratitude and happiness in simple pleasures. Some of that is natural, some has required some cultivation.

I really don't relate to the posts that talk about how misersble the world is and not brining children into it. It'd be a cold day in hell before I let Trump or Putin or any other dick swinging arsehole weird that kind of power over me!

Yes.
Bad stuff has happened but I’ve been lucky that I just can let it go and enjoy the moment.

No.

I’m very fortunate for my childhood, our childhoods were genuinely full of love and family. Occasions were made absolutely magical by my parents, and even after they divorced (which didn’t have any negative affect on us at all tbh, great relationship with both parents and never felt to blame ect) both parents continued to make Christmas/easter/birthdays wonderful for us as kids (and adults tbh)

That said, from my mid-late teens I began suffering anxiety or multiple descriptions and depression, I’ve been in and out of therapy, still am even in my 30’s - I often feel like my life is going nowhere, and because of my mental health struggles I’ve really held back and haven’t been able to be my true self for many many years now. I feel like my entire 20’s have been ripped away from me and I’m just hoping my 30’s will be different.

So far on balance very much so

No, none of my hopes and dreams have come true

Yes.

Of course there has been a certain amount of bad things, serious illness, bereavement, life stress, but this has easily been outweighed by the good things.

Being married to an absolutely rock solid man who is my best friend has been a major factor in my happiness. Not far off 40 years of love, kindness, thoughtfulness and companionship. Fabulous adult DC too.

No but some of the reasons are my fault

Sorry to hear that.

I often wonder ( at age 43) what my hopes and dreams actually were. I never cared about relationships or getting married or having kids, but now that I'm older I do kind of wish I'd done that. But I think that's a mortality worry, rather than it having been my true hopes and dreams.

I think i've had a lovely life so far, my family is great ( apart from a difficult sister who I do my best to just get along with for the sake of family) i have a lot of great friends. And in the last few years, I have found a lot of kindred spirits in the dog world ( which has been a quasi cover up for the lack of my own family).

This is all a bit existential, but life is what you make it. And I think i'm just going to continue to enjoy the positives and not worry about the negatives, or the things i've missed

I’m a lifelong depressive so I’ve had an awful lot of sadness in my life.
But I have had a lot of happiness too.
I’ve learned to think of happiness as something you experience in moments.
When I saw the thread title When was the last time you were happy? recently, I thought Earlier this afternoon when I had a cup of tea on the sofa with my dd watching cartoons after school.

Tricky. I've had lots of personal trauma, can acknowledge I have also not been the best person in the past..however I do count my blessings. So very high highs and very low lows, it's about perspective I guess, some days feel great and I gasp at how lucky I am, and other days it feels like the bad is never-ending. Percentage wise? 40% great and 60% bad but trying to improve it all the time. I can only control how I react to the bad, not the bad itself.

No it just gets worse

What an outstanding question.

Yes.

Yes definitely, I feel very fortunate.

Nope, abusive childhood, into an abusive marriage, my son died, my daughter died. I've struggled as a single parent on shitty min wage jobs my whole life, then got cancer, then had a stroke, now foing through biopsies and stuff again. I'm bloody tired of it all.

My only joy is my kids, and I'm so proud that, despite everything I got the mother/child relationship I deserved, only I'm the mum this time.

Yes. I think I’ve been incredibly lucky. Some bad things have happened, divorce, bereavement but overall I have had a great life. It didn’t turn out as I’d expected - I never had children, didn’t have the career I’d thought I was going to have - but I have had opportunities and experiences that I never could have imagined.

I am 65 and heading into retirement excited for the next phase of my life. I don’t read the newspapers and I try and avoid negative people, I’m lucky to have some great friends and family.