One of the most important mental health doctors in the world is warning people to be careful at a time when social media encourages people to always be positive. Dr. Ronald C. Kessler, the most quoted psychiatry and psychology researcher, says that seeking "perfect happiness" is impossible and may be harmful. 

At Harvard Medical School, Dr Kessler is the McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy. He designed the methods that the World Health Organization (WHO) uses to compare depression and anxiety rates between countries. He came to a harsh conclusion after looking into the mental health of millions of people around the world: "Sustained euphoria can be a sign of illness." 

Who is saying this? Why does it matter? 

Dr Kessler is not an expert on how to live a healthy life. He studies populations and helped make the World Mental Health Survey Initiative, which is the biggest effort in the world to map mental illnesses. His work showed that people with mental health issues don't just live in wealthy Western countries. Everyone has them; they start early in life, and if you don't treat them, they tend to "pile up.". 

What does his field, psychiatric epidemiology, do to study mental illness? It counts how many people are affected, when problems start, and what happens over time, like how public health counts people with heart disease or diabetes. 

This is what science says about being happy. 

In an interview with Genomic Press, Dr Kessler says that being happy all the time is not how the brain is meant to work. Extreme or long-lasting highs can sometimes be a sign of a mental illness like bipolar disorder. Experts in mental health pay more attention to stability, meaning, and connection than to pleasure because of this. 

"Instead, I want a grounded kind of well-being that includes being happy, useful, and connected to other people," he says. 

Long-term surveys, like the National Comorbidity Survey, have shown that anxiety, depression, and drug use disorders often start in teens or early 20s. They raise the chance of unemployment, illness, and suicide later in life if they are ignored. 

From keeping track of illnesses to stopping them 

Dr Kessler's work has changed from finding signs of mental illness to stopping it before it happens. His SAFEGUARD programme for the US Army uses tools that are based on data to find soldiers who are very likely to commit suicide. Another project helps college students with their mental health by giving them digital tools before their problems get too bad. 

It makes sense: early help works better than treatment in a disaster. 

Significance for India 

India is seeing more worry, exam pressure, burnout at work, and anxiety among young people. The results of Dr Kessler's study support an important lesson for families and policymakers: mental health care should begin early, be useful, and focus on helping people function in daily life, not on trying to create a false idea of constant happiness. 

Five questions that a lot of people ask—answered by science 

A lot of people think that mental health and happiness are the same thing, but science makes it clear that they are not. Mental health doesn't mean always feeling good. In fact, being too "happy" or staying that way can sometimes be a sign of a deeper problem rather than well-being. They use structured interviews and big population surveys that look at patterns of distress across age groups and life stages to figure out where the real risks are. Studies like these keep showing that a lot of mental health issues start in childhood, when the brain is still growing and is more easily affected by things like trauma, stress, and social pressure. The data also shows that what really helps in the long run is not constant pleasure but having a sense of purpose, strong social connections, and being able to get help when problems start to show up. 

An idea of what the good life is based on 

Dr Kessler has written more than 1,300 scientific papers, but his theory is very simple. He says the point of life is not to be happy all the time but to make a difference. He lived by the motto, "Do the best you can with the evidence you have for the sake of others." 

Psychology tells us a more calming truth in this age of over-the-top happiness: mental health isn't about being happy all the time; it's about living well, truly, and with others.