There's a very interesting post Slate Star Codex about internal perception of wellbeing vs external behavior. TL;DR: there is a paper about people who claim to

There's a very interesting post Slate Star Codex about internal perception of wellbeing vs external behavior. TL;DR: there is a paper about people who claim to have experienced enlightenment, but often there's no changes in their behavior (that people around them, e.g. their friends and relatives, would notice). Scott warns against dismissing these experiences as "fake", arguing that we similarly don't dismiss claims of depression in people who are still "functional" and living their lives as usual. https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/10/21/the-pnse-paper/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/10/21/the-pnse-paper/