Do You Have A 'Fear Of Happiness'? Here's How To Tell

Happiness, to some, might come with strings attached. Here's how these strings can contribute to an 'aversion to happiness,' as well as how to identify it.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | September 24, 2024

For many people, the pursuit of happiness is seen as the ultimate goal in life. We're encouraged to seek joy, fulfillment and contentment—and, for the most part, happiness is viewed as a sign of success and well-being.

But for others, happiness is less simple. Instead of being a state to aspire to, happiness feels like a dangerous high—a peak that only makes the inevitable fall that much harder. For those who experience a fear of happiness, joy is not a goal; it's a precursor to pain.

Though this mindset might seem cynical or overly cautious to some, it's a reality backed by psychological research. Here's what the fear of happiness entails, and how you can identify whether it might be affecting you.

Happiness As A Baseline For Well-Being

Western culture generally holds happiness in high regard. According to a 2014 research paper from the Journal of Happiness Studies, happiness is often viewed as a core component of well-being. We tend to believe that a good life is one in which we are satisfied, free from negative emotions and, most crucially, full of positive ones. Feeling content is not enough; it's about actively pursuing that contentment in all areas of life.

The authors, Mohsen Joshanloo and Dan Weijers, explain that this pursuit of happiness is deeply rooted in Western values. They note, "Ever since the enlightenment, westerners have responded to the ideas of liberal modernity, hedonism and romantic individualism by believing in the sovereignty of individuals over their personal happiness, and the importance of positive mood and affect balance as ingredients of a good life."

In other words, Western culture tends to assume that happiness is not just a value to be pursued, but perhaps the most important value of all. But what happens when happiness doesn't feel like a worthy goal? What if, instead, it feels like a risk?

Why Happiness May Not Be A Universal Baseline

Although happiness is widely accepted as a positive thing in many cultures, this is not a universal belief. Some people—including many within the Western world—view happiness with suspicion or even fear. Joshanloo and Weijers call this phenomenon an "aversion to happiness," and they propose several reasons why someone might experience it:

Being happy makes it more likely that bad things will happen to you. For some, happiness feels like a setup for failure. When life is at its best, they believe that misfortune—be it sadness, suffering or even death—is lurking around the corner. As the authors explain, "Since these negative conditions are often seen as being more negative than being happy is positive, belief that happiness causes, or tends to be followed by, these negative conditions is enough to make people averse to happiness."
Being happy makes you a worse person. Some people see happiness as a hindrance to moral or creative growth. They might fear that happiness will distract them from their deeper, more meaningful pursuits. For example, painter Edvard Munch, the painter of The Scream, once said of his unhappiness, "They are part of me and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and it would destroy my art. I want to keep those sufferings."
Pursuing happiness is bad for you and others. In some cultures, seeking happiness is viewed as selfish or harmful. The pursuit of happiness can become all-consuming—one that may lead to burnout or dissatisfaction. The authors note that this pursuit can also hurt those around us, as the quest for personal joy may result in others feeling neglected or overlooked.

How To Tell If You Have A Fear Of Happiness

In a more recent 2022 study published in the journal Motivation and Emotion, Joshanloo found that certain life experiences and beliefs can predict whether someone might develop an aversion to happiness. For example, an unhappy childhood, perfectionism, a belief in black magic or karma and feelings of loneliness are all strong indicators.

Ultimately, this suggests that if you've experienced hardships in your formative years, grown up with an overly critical inner voice or found it difficult to trust in the good things life offers, it's understandable that happiness might feel like a fleeting or risky emotion.

In a 2013 study published in Personality and Individual Differences, Joshanloo developed the Fear of Happiness Scale (FHS) to help people better understand this mindset. A simple questionnaire, the FHS consists of five statements—each of which users must rate with their level of agreement:

I prefer not to be too joyful, because usually joy is followed by sadness.
I believe the more cheerful and happy I am, the more I should expect bad things to occur in my life.
Disasters often follow good fortune.
Having lots of joy and fun causes bad things to happen.
Excessive joy has some bad consequences.

If these statements resonate with you, you might feel reluctant to embrace happiness fully—as though allowing yourself to be happy is an open invitation for misfortune. This is a mindset that can be hard to break, especially if past experiences have reinforced the belief that happiness doesn't last. However, acknowledging this pattern is a powerful step towards change.

Reflecting on these questions, it's important to understand that having a fear of happiness doesn't mean you're fated to avoid joy forever. It's natural for all of us to want to protect ourselves from pain and disappointment. But in doing so, we might unintentionally close ourselves off from the full spectrum of positive experiences that life has to offer.

Ask yourself, what would happen if you allowed yourself to feel happiness without the fear of what comes next? Could you sit with the joy, however fleeting, and enjoy it for what it is?

Remember, happiness isn't something that needs to be feared or controlled, or a feeling that renders you an Epicurean hedonist. It's not a reward with strings attached, nor is it an omen for imminent suffering. The more we can open ourselves up to it—even if in small, cautious doses—the more we can start to see happiness as something that enriches our lives, not something that risks destabilizing it.

Curious about how deep your fear of happiness runs? Take the Fear of Happiness Scale to receive a science-backed answer: Fear Of Happiness Scale

A similar version of this article can also be found on Forbes.com, here.