Happiness?

So I just wrote an entry, I know... BUT I just finished out my goal for the gluten free diet and I got to thinking... Why was that goal so EASY to accomplish and the "be a happy person" is SOOOO HARD? Is it in the details? Is trying to be a happy person too overwhelming right now? Does it just feel harder that maybe I will never be a happy person? Maybe it's gone? Maybe I had what I consider a very happy childhood (even though most wouldn't consider dealing with wearing an eye patch and missing TONS of school to see doctors, a happy childhood) enough? Maybe I used up all the happiness my soul could create when I was a kid and now it is all gone? Does it work that way?
How does anyone really know how happiness works?
Clearly, if someone truly did, they would save the world in a huge way. So, maybe we'll never know. BUT I wonder, if going on a gluten diet, gave me the strength to get through two more weeks, feeling like I had a goal in my life, that I had power over my own life, that I had the strength to get through those weeks... was that happiness? Maybe I have no idea what happiness truly is, and I just think I was happy as a kid?
Maybe I have this idea in my head, of what happiness is for me, and since I don't have that picture I am constantly disapointed with my life causing the unhappiness? I'm not sure what that picture really is though. I know pieces of it, I know what I want, and some of what I want, I can't have right now. But doesn't everyone live like that? So is no one happy?
Do we all just pretend we are happy, or think that we are happy? When in reality we are not, and most people are just wired to keep going?
I was watching "Life" on the Discovery Channel tonight, and it talked about how all animals live for only a few things. 1. Reproduce 2. Find food to eat and 3. Don't become anothers food. Where does happiness fit in there? Why do Humans need so much more than that? Do we need much more than that? It seems emotionally we do. We have emotions that cause us to have these needs, are they truly necesarry?
My new Endo told me that he truly believes that if you feel like something helps you, that isn't hurting you, then do it. He said, if the gluten free diet helps you, then do it. He said if reading helps you feel better, than read for medicine, if watching TV helps, then do it!
Maybe the key to happiness simply lies within our basic needs?