I'm depressed about my facial expression

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I'm always so misunderstood. How can I make my facial expression match what I'm feeling? I can't figure out what muscles to use or how to use them. I'm so sad, everyone thinks I'm angry and I'm not. It has been a lifelong battle of people thinking I'm angry. I just want what I'm feeling on the inside to match the outside.

I'm sorry you're going through this. I think I have a similar problem because some people tell me I look sad. A lot of people also seem to act serious and depressed around me, even when I'm in a good mood. It gets a little frustrating.

Maybe you could just smile slightly so that it's not too forced?

All I can suggest is standing in front of a mirror and trying to make different facial expressions or move different facial muscles just to experiment and see what it looks like....over time, you might be able to associate what you see in the mirror with what you feel when you move certain facial muscles in particular ways, and gain enough coordination of those muscles to make the expressions you want (or at least something close to the expression you want).

Like this?

When I teach, I go through a whole preparation for hours to get my "Act" together for a two hour class. But it's all an act and it takes great amount of concentration just to do that.

This is me sans the drugs, booze and cigarette in the shower.

Something that happens to me is that a lot of times if I am feeling sad/annoyed/whatever people always seem to be able to tell. Even if I think I'm not really showing it. I also think I sort of tend to give kind of weird looks sometimes, and I know that when I take photos of myself it can be hard to not have a weird look, though that's actually gotten a bit easier than it was a few years ago. Actually, maybe that's a good way to be more self aware of your facial expressions, look in the mirror and/or take 'selfies'? idk

I have a problem related to facial expressions, too. When I was a kid, I knew I didn't express much at all on my face, so when becoming an adult and having to work jobs where I needed to interact face-to-face, I forced myself to have a happy expression all the time, regardless of how I felt. So today, the result is that when I'm feeling happy, I'll often look VERY happy. And if I'm not really feeling happy, one of two things tends to happen:

1) I still look happy because I conditioned myself to do so. This probably happens around 80% of the time, and as a result, most people I meet tend to think I'm a real happy guy!
Or 2) My face will express how I feel, but often to exaggerated effect. I might look real angry when I'm just a little disappointed, or look really depressed when I'm just feeling a bit sad. I hate when this happens because I feel this is when I lose control and may look bad to people.

So, my attempts to force certain facial expressions has had mixed results. I wish you the best as you try to figure what might work for you.

Im sorry to nitpick but TECHNICALLY you cant be "depressed" about something, thats like saying "oh that movie made me bi-polar" or "that guy makes me alchoholic"

People with depression are just very emotionally low and unmotivated, its a state of being-not an emotion.

If your lack of facial expression makes you upset, then i can see why.

I dont think about facial expressions at all, i forget they exsist because in my mind they dont exsist. the concept seem fake to me.

the only thing i can tell you is to take acting lessons.
during those, you are trained to exaggerate your facial expressions, and those lessons can then be used to make them in the first place.

"Depressed" is actually an emotional state, just like "anxious" -- it refers to feeling very unhappy/despondent/hopeless.

The literal/concrete meaning of depressed is sort of like "sunken", or pushed below (e.g. a hole in the ground is "depressed" below the surface), and it's use to describe emotional state probably started out as a metaphor.

Non-clinical "depression" is actually a very normal emotional state, too, experienced at one point or another by almost everyone. It is common to say that one is "depressed" about/because of something or that a person "feels depressed" -- it's even used that way in the dictionary.

^I agree