I've been thinking a lot about happiness recently and its inverse, the self-loathing you are talking about. I've pretty much landed on the pursuit of a worthy goal definition.
It's why getting your dopamine fix from games and tv shows doesn't actually make you feel any better. But the people who make the games understand simulating the goal-reward loop really well.
A lot of my friends talk about the shows they are watching and the games they are playing. I'm just sitting there like, "who has time for all that shit?"
Now excuse me while I go chat on discord about steemmonsters...