The biology of optimism

The skills of enjoying positive emotions, being engaged with people you care about, having meaning in life, achieving your work goals and maintaining good relationships are entirely different from the skills of not being depressed, not being anxious and not being angry.

The absence of sadness, anxiety and anger does not guarantee happiness. The absence of mental illness does not necessarily equate to positive mental health. Rather it is the presence of ‘flourishing’. (contrary to Freud)

Research on rats show that they can learn helplessness.. inference: if you believe you cannot escape you give up and this can weaken the body… rats that had ‘learned’ helplessness were more inclined to suffer ill health. Animals can become passive therefore and gave up in the face of adversity once they had first experienced the noxious event that they could do nothing about. Obviously, this does not necessarily translate to humans.

Also not all became helpless… those who think optimistically ‘it’s going away quickly, I can do something about it and it’s just this one situation’ are more able to bounce back after a defeat. And visa versa.