No Stupid Questions

I think happiness is more generally defined as the absence of things that make you unhappy rather than a tangible thing itself.

Kind of like how cold is defined by the absence of heat.

The issue is, is that people think that happiness is a concrete thing, and so when they are asked if they are happy, they start looking for some like joyous positive, buoyant, radiant, plus in their lives.

And then, when they don't find it, it makes them wonder if they are not happy.

Happiness is the capacity to be engaged with your life under your own volition.

If you have that, even if you don't feel the way you think happiness should feel, you are happy.

Happiness is not contentment.

Happiness is not joy.

Happiness is not a warm blanket on a cold winter's day.

Happiness is being alive and present in your center.

If you feel like you are not happy, that is what you should aim for. All of the other things will work themselves out in the process.

Happiness from media is like strength from lifting - is it real strength of the weight is measured precisely and there is an easy to lift handle? Of course it's real. How we feel reading and vicariously living through stories gives our brains an emotional workout.

All things test us. Whether mentally, physically, emotionally, we are required to use a bit of our willpower/strength/sanity each day because that's life. Without working on, building, and honing our ability to manage we would always have a personality defining moment where we found the edge of our ability and collapsed from the pressure.

We also see others in that medium and can learn from what they experience. Again, vicarious living is a free tool our brain uses all the time and media is exactly why.

Being entertained is a workout for being a good person not because it builds the imagination but expands our capacity to be a more developed person.

Having fun at a movie, is just exercising a humorous aspect of our intelligence and consciousness, no different from being amused by a joke.

It's obviously not a delusion if you know it's fantasy, it's only a delusion if it's fictional, but you strongly believe it to be true. Like believing there is life after death.

Fantasy is a part of our imagination, that enable us to speculate on things that may happen in the future, and prepare for them.
We can do that for fun, and speculate on things we very well know will not likely happen. That can be for amusement / entertainment.

Delusion is to believe things that are very unlikely to have either already happened or to happen in the future, but believe them despite being contrary to logic and the evidence. Like for instance religions or believing Santa Clause is real.

If a delusion is fixed, and no degree of evidence it is a delusion will persuade the person. It can become much like a psychosis:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis

Therefore strongly held beliefs in things that aren't true, like for instance conspiracy theories or religion can reasonably be considered a degree of mental illness. Which most today will not be willing to acknowledge, but I think maybe in 50 years will become more accepted.
Belief in God is a delusion, a strong belief in God can be borderline psychosis.

Having fun at a movie, is just using our imagination for fun and entertainment, instead of the real life problem solving that is probably the evolutionary main reason we have it. Having fun using these skills, helps train them.
So this is perfectly healthy and normal, and has nothing to do with delusions. The story may be fantasy, but the fun is real.

So we're just using NoStupidQuestions to insult large swathes of people now, I see.

Get off your high horse by insulting literally the entirety of fiction readers because you believe their happiness to be a "delusion" whatever batshit insane meaning you think that has.

If you dig too deep into reality, you will discover that effectively 100% of the population is delusional on no less than 2000 subjects. They just have yet to be bitten on the ass for it.

And people take it very poorly when you start pointing it out; just like you and I will when someone else shows up to do the same thing to us. Historically speaking we lock people up for shouting things that have not yet been accepted by enough people. Like the earth is going to be eaten by the sun (true in a few billion years) or the sky is falling (it is more acceptable when you call it rain).