[QUAD-L] Diognosed with "excessive happiness"

[Bobbie299]

Hi there nice people,     I love this list for MANY reasons, like sharing things. I'd like to share something with yall. I'm reading a book written by Art Berg a quad C 5 1988 MVA accident. "The Impossible Just Takes A Little Longer" (I love the title) Living with a purpose and passion. He was a motovationional speaker after his injury, he passed away in 2002. The book is a weave of inspiration, motivation and autobiography paper back. When he was in the hospital, he was diagnosed with "excessive happiness" and was treated for it.  Here is an excerpt I wanted to share with you.         "...People must of thought I was crazy that I decided to be happy. In fact, a few years ago, I was able to get ahold of all my medical records from that stay in the hospital. It included medications, doctors' notes, complications, and my case manager's recommendations. And it also gave me an answer to a question that had always bothered me about my time there. During much of my hospital stay, my Doctor, kept sending  psychiatrists to see me. At one time, he had me separated from a room I shared with several other patients to my own room. I certainly wasn't complaining-I loved having my own room-but it did seem odd at the time. But right there, in the middle of this massive medical journal, I found the reason.     There was a report that I was suffering from "excessive happiness." The doctors felt that I laughed to much and was in to good of a mood much of the time.     The doctors noted in my records that they felt my state of "excessive happiness" was keeping me in a state of denial about my condition. They felt that the problem was exacerbated by (in his words) "a loving family." Their solution was to do several things:     1.Keep me in psychiatric counseling;     2.Isolate me from other patients;     3.Limit my exposure to my family and friends. Excessive happiness! I never knew there was such a disorder. I didn't know you could be too happy."       Bobbie