When British journalist and documentarian Ruth Whippman moved to California for her husband’s job in 2011, the weather wasn’t the only thing that was different from home. Everywhere she went, she noticed that people seemed obsessed with happiness.

“I literally never heard a British person use the word ‘blessed,’ and if they did, I would think they had joined a religious cult,” Whippman tells The Post.

In her new Silicon Valley home, she met a fellow mom, and they hit it off. But when she tried to schedule another get-together, the mom could never meet: She was at yoga, meditating or going to healing workshops. It seemed the mom’s quest for happiness did not include making new friends.

These observations propelled Whippman to find out whether the American obsession with happiness was actually making everyone miserable and more anxious. Her research took her everywhere from “happiness research centers” to Las Vegas, where Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was so committed to happiness research, he embarked on a project in 2012 to build the “ideal” community. Whippman details her findings in her new book, “America the Anxious: How Our Pursuit of Happiness Is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks” (St. Martin’s Press, out now).

Surveys support the idea that religious people are much more likely to report being “very happy” than nonbelievers.

The author also headed to Provo, Utah, the “happiest town in America,” according to Gallup polls. Surveys by the Pew Research Center and Gallup consistently support the idea that religious people are much more likely to report being “very happy” than nonbelievers; Provo has a population that’s over 90 percent Mormon.

Once there, Whippman visited Mormon housewives to find out if their lives were really as wholesome and happy as they appeared.

“I had gotten addicted to Mormon mommy blogs, and I thought, ‘Maybe what I really should be doing is living in Utah and doing crafts,’ ” says Whippman.

At first, Whippman thought she had hit the happiness jackpot. Her hosts were deeply involved in their community, and neighbors kept dropping by unannounced with food and conversation. The Mormons Whippman met are constantly going to potluck dinners, wedding showers and neighborhood get-togethers.

“There’s a lot of positive things to say about this community. If you have a problem, 20 neighbors will step in to help you. It’s not fake, it’s genuine and lovely,” says Whippman. “But at the same time, it’s not as simple as that.”

Further conversations with Mormon women, many of them stay-at-home moms, exposed resentment at having to forgo careers for kids. Many of them told Whippman about struggles with depression, made worse by having to put on a constant facade of happiness.

I had gotten addicted to Mormon mommy blogs, and I thought, ‘Maybe what I really should be doing is living in Utah and doing crafts. - Ruth Whippman

It could be that the coping mechanism is found at the pharmacy. Mormon Utah has the highest rate of antidepressant use in the United States, twice the national average.

Utah might not be Utopia, but Mormons have the right idea about one important element of happiness, and that’s fostering friendships and community bonds. It’s something many Americans seem to have forgotten about. According to a 2014 Food Marketing Institute Report, nearly half of all meals are eaten alone in America, and a 2006 report published in the American Sociological Review found that average Americans have fewer close friends than they did 20 years earlier.

“Forty percent of adults over 45 say they’re lonely,” says Whippman. “And the thing is, loneliness [has been found to be] more dangerous for your health than smoking or being obese. We’re replacing our normal social support with commercial happiness. We feel like if we can just try harder, work harder at being happier, that’ll work. We’re seeing happiness as something you can accomplish on your own, whereas the stuff that truly brings joy — friends and family — gets short shrift.”