is this severe loneliness or first stage depression?

[?]

Have you ever experienced it that you can't or you don't want to go to sleep yet because you are so lonely and sad and you are waiting for something that would make you happy before going to sleep. Like maybe, an email that brings good news, or a message notification from the person you like a lot or a funny comment from a friend on your facebook or get several likes on your recent instagram photo. It happened to me often. I can't sleep because I kept on waiting for something that would make me happy - not the usual everyday small things that I just take for granted now - but i am constantly waiting for a surprise that would make me happy.

[drdr]

It has been empirically proven that acting as if one is happy can be a method of being more positive in their life. It has been proven that even fake laughter triggers a biochemical reaction in the brain that positively alters one’s perspective. Thinking positively about one’s self and doing what needs to be done (particularly when it is hard to do) can go a long way toward being successful; and, thinking positive thoughts is more effective than trying to suppress negative thoughts. Psych research in happiness indicates that achieving a goal seldom results in sustained happiness. Research also indicates that hope and optimism are key to success in life, and that genuine pride in success/accomplishments can evoke happiness. Dissatisfaction with life results from dwelling on past negative events, and insufficient appreciation and savoring of past positive events.

See: Seligman, “Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment;” there are several questionnaires at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn....ault.aspx. From the web site: “Positive psychology interventions can also lastingly decrease depression symptoms.”

Depression self-help: http://www.helpguide.org/topics/depression.htm

WebMD depression health check:, http://www.webmd.com/depression/default.htm

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Epictetus (55-135 CE)

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE)

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.
Groucho Marx (1895-1977)

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.
Hugh Downs

People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
Thomas Jefferson

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.
Thomas Jefferson

A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Chapter 1 (1667)