Looking more distressed than you actually are

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I notice that I often look distressed when I'm just tired or bored. It's pretty annoying because people often ask me if I'm okay when I'm just tired. Since I don't communicate as well when I'm tired my responses kind of "prove" that I'm not okay.

I have this perpetual look on my face that screams "depression". Except it's hilarious, because I'm usually doing pretty well on the inside.

People don't do it to me so much now, but when I was a teenager I couldn't go anywhere without someone on the street saying "Cheer up!" It really annoyed me, because I didn't think I was particularly unhappy or looking like I was. I felt a certain amount of tension/stress out in public but I didn't think it was so bad that it showed. But people always told me to cheer up and it just made me mad.

I started consciously trying to wear a neutral expression on my face when out in public, just so as not to draw attention. It's a pain in the ass but it seems to work.

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Story of my life. Apparently my 'content' expression is exactly the same as my 'I want to die' expression. Somehow being told to "cheer up" was an awful lot more annoying when I actually was depressed than it is now that I'm quite cheerful

I usually have the opposite problem, people think I look happy, when I actually feel upset and miserable. But I've also had people think that I look sad or depressed when I felt fine.

The irony is my expression tends to be quite neutral when I'm having a panic attack or I'm extremely depressed.

People seem to always mistake just being thoughtful and philosophical with being miserable when the two should not be confused. Being philosophical can certainly lead one to miserable conclusions but when I'm being thoughtful, I am often at my happiest. When people go 'cheer up', it can be exceptionally annoying especially when there are many things going on in the world that make one extremely pessimistic. I would hate to live in a world in which everybody went around with a false, inane grin painted onto their faces.

Yes I often get this. When I'm in new situations I get a lot of "you alright? you look nervous", when I'm feeling fine and just taking in what's going on. The constant asking is what will make me nervous!

I also get the problem of people not realising how bad I'm feeling, especially as I can't vocalise, though the few who know me well can sometimes work it out.

Well, wow -- I'm back here to say....it just happened again to me earlier this evening!! I don't think I've had it in years, but tonight I was just walking home from the supermarket and looking forward to watching a movie and eating snacks, when a man sitting on a bench piped up:

"Cheer up, please"

WTF?????????????? I was feeling fine!

And I actually said to him with the best "WTF?" look I could muster: "....I'm fine!"

He apologized! But seriously, what the hell??

I think my face at rest looks very tired these days, possibly strained. But I didn't think I looked that miserable.

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