Mental Health And Happiness: What’s The Link?

It may not be surprising to learn that research has connected health and happiness. Many people understand that good health can help you feel happy, and that feeling happy may make you more likely to take care of your health. However, the link between the two can be even more complex and nuanced. Understanding different factors that can affect health and happiness may empower you to look after your own well-being. If you need emotional or mental health support, you can meet with a professional therapist online or in person.

What is happiness?

Most people can identify happiness when they feel it, but defining this emotion in words can sometimes be challenging. The experience might be somewhat different for each person, but one study suggests that happiness is generally made up of:

• Feelings of joy and pleasure
• A sense of meaning and purpose in life
• Life satisfaction

For support in processing your emotions, you might consider working with a therapist online or in person.

Understanding the connection between health and happiness

Experts believe that there may be a complex, bidirectional relationship between health and happiness, with each affecting the other. The researchers behind the book Happiness and Health: An Intricate Relationship put it this way: 

“Positive emotions, resilience, sex and intimacy, and social connectedness are usually associated with happiness, whereas stress, worry, pain, and depression are not. Happier people probably live longer, and there is excess mortality associated with unhappiness; however, many confounding variables exist.”

Note the impact of genetics and life circumstances

Some factors that affect health and happiness are within a person’s control, but it can be important to remember that many are not fully. For example, research suggests that happiness may be 36% to 40% heritable. 

Also, the social determinants of health can play a significant role in a person’s overall well-being and mood. For example, discrimination, a lack of access to healthcare, and unstable housing could negatively affect a person’s day-to-day happiness and their overall health in major ways.

The biology behind the link between happiness and health 

Because of the mind-body connection, the body often responds when you experience different emotions. For example, happiness might make you feel physically relaxed or energized, while sadness can sometimes cause fatigue or even pain. Hormones typically play a big role in this relationship. These chemicals are released by the body in response to different stimuli, and each one may affect how you feel both emotionally and physically.

Some hormones often associated with happiness include:

• Oxytocin
• Dopamine
• Serotonin
• Endorphins

An example of this connection

Oxytocin, “the love hormone,” can be released when you engage in enjoyable social bonding, causing feelings of happiness and contentment. This hormone may also counteract the stress reaction, decreasing inflammation and helping regulate the body’s immune response. Oxytocin-based therapies have even been proposed to help with mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD because of this chemical's potential impact on mood. 

The more you do activities that release oxytocin, the better you may feel, which could lead you to engage in these behaviors more often. By engaging in these behaviors repeatedly over time, you might strengthen your social connections, boost your mood, and reduce your risk of some health challenges. 

In other words, feeling happy and filled with hope might make you more likely to engage in healthy behaviors than if you feel sad or pessimistic, which could kick off a positive cycle of well-being. Keeping this connection in mind may help you set yourself up for success with long-term healthy habits.

Building resilience to support both happiness and health

Happiness might help improve your health, but it may not be realistic to be happy all the time. Allowing yourself to experience the full spectrum of your emotions can also be healthy, since bottling up your feelings may cause health challenges. So how can you feel your feelings without harming your mental or physical health? Experts suggest that resilience might be the key.

The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.” It’s not about trying to avoid difficulties or pain, but about healthily managing them.

What resilience can look like in daily life?

Resilience can look like giving yourself time and space to feel difficult emotions and practicing self-care routines to help yourself recover from difficult experiences. Consider the example of a person experiencing heartbreak, which might cause them to feel sad and down for a few weeks. 

• With low resilience, they might find it hard to do anything to make themselves feel better, and their sadness may persist or even turn into a mental health condition like depression. 
• With high resilience, they may feel just as sad and give themselves time to process the pain. However, the person may also have a toolbox of coping mechanisms and social support to help them move through the experience with time.

The idea isn’t to shame yourself for feeling upset or struggling. Your feelings are valid, and everyone goes through difficult moments sometimes. Instead, the idea is to remind you of the power of resilience, which you can build in small ways over time. For support in building resilience and moving through emotional challenges healthily, consider working with an in-person or online therapist.

Everyday habits to lift mood and support health 

Taking care of yourself by practicing positive habits might help you feel both happier and healthier. Research suggests that movement, sleep, nutrition, music, and social engagement can often be effective strategies to try.

Move your body

Plenty of research suggests that getting regular physical movement can benefit mood and health. For example, a survey of adults ages 18 to 30 across 24 countries showed that those with moderate to high physical activity tended to experience higher life satisfaction, happiness, and better perceived health. Finding enjoyable ways to get active may often help promote benefits like these. 

Physical movement that’s not necessarily a form of exercise may also boost your mood. In a TEDx Talk, dance-movement therapist Dr. Tal Shafir explains that specific movements may affect emotion. For example, smiling may “trick” your brain into feeling happier, and movements like stretching and yoga may help you feel calmer.

Eat nutrient-dense foods

Many people understand that eating patterns can affect physical health, but your meals may also affect your happiness. One mechanism may be through the gut biome, which can impact brain functioning and, therefore, mood. It’s why experts tend to recommend anti-inflammatory eating patterns and foods with probiotics, because a healthy gut may support a more positive or stable mood. 

Get plenty of sleep

As 2025 research published in Neuropsychologia puts it, “Sleep plays a crucial role in emotion processing,” and a lack of sleep may cause emotion dysregulation and a higher risk of mental health conditions like depression. Aiming to get seven to nine hours of sleep each night might help you keep a happier or more balanced mood.

Listen to music

Listening to music you enjoy might make you feel happier by affecting a few key hormones in the body. First, it may release feel-good chemicals like endorphins and dopamine. It may also decrease levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, bringing a sense of calm that may help you feel relaxed and even sleep better.

Engage socially

Researchers have shown that regularly engaging with friends, family, and community may support mental health, and it may help with mood as well. One study suggests that lower levels of loneliness and higher levels of social support may also be linked to happiness, specifically, especially for more introverted people.

Prosocial interactions, which benefit others, may especially lift your mood. Volunteering, helping a neighbor, or doing random acts of kindness are a few examples. One study reports a correlation between “the number of kind acts and increases in happiness.”

Managing stress to promote happiness and health

Feeling stressed releases the hormone cortisol, which can keep the body and mind in a state of high alert and cause irritability and mood changes. Research has linked stress to:

• Mood challenges, like irritability, defensiveness, guilt, and nervousness
• Mental health challenges, like anxiety and depression
• Physical health challenges, like insomnia, fatigue, stomach problems, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other serious conditions

Lots of situations can cause stress, like your job, relationship conflicts, finances, and many others. Finding healthy ways to manage stress may help you reduce its impacts on your happiness and your health. The self-care habits discussed above may be useful, and practicing gratitude, taking social media breaks, and meditating might also lower your stress. 

Are mental health symptoms affecting your happiness?

Stress isn’t the only mental health experience that can affect your happiness and overall well-being. Symptoms of mental health conditions may also have an impact. 

For example, depression can affect mood by causing hopelessness, irritability, and fatigue, which can also make it harder to take care of your overall health. Or, excessive worry and anxiety might make you feel on edge and put you at higher risk of maladaptive coping mechanisms that can harm health, such as drinking. The reverse can also be true: Physical health challenges might make you feel unhappy or worried.

If you’re living with symptoms of a mental health condition, reaching out for help can be a brave and positive step forward. Connecting with a therapist is one way to get support with your mental health.

How to get mental health support

Talk therapy is usually the first recommended treatment for mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. You don’t have to be experiencing symptoms of a diagnosable condition to benefit from therapy, though. A therapist may also help with other challenges that can affect health and happiness, like low self-esteem, relationship troubles, stress, grief, a low sense of purpose, and many others.

How you get mental health support depends on your needs and preferences. If you’re in crisis, call or text the 988 Lifeline. For less urgent, ongoing support, you might consider meeting with a therapist. Some people prefer to talk to a therapist in person at their office or in the context of a support group. Others may be interested in exploring online therapy as a more convenient option for care.

Exploring online therapy

Online therapy means working with a licensed therapist virtually, connecting via phone, video, or live chat appointments. With an online therapy platform like BetterHelp, you can also get matched with a therapist based on your answers to an onboarding questionnaire, which may help you get care even more easily. Many people also find online therapy to be more affordable than in-person care without insurance.

Source

Does online therapy really work?

Research generally supports the use of online therapy, suggesting that it may be “no less efficacious” than traditional, in-person talk therapy. That said, the most effective form of therapy may be whichever one you’ll attend most consistently, so you can feel empowered to choose the best format for your needs.