"Happiness" is like a 'field' produced by our positive activity as the corresponding 'potential'. This field appears if and only if this 'potential' changes, i.e., some new achievement comes. In this perspective, you are fully right.
Devise a simple internal mechanism in yourself to turn your pain into anger, anger into motivation, motivation into success, and, finally, success into "Happiness"
The "Happiness", earned and felt this hard way, is a unique and digitally immortal one