Many people try to pretend that they are happy when they're actually experiencing symptoms of mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. Depression is serious but treatable mental health condition that can be addressed with professional help.
Faking happiness occurs when you make yourself appear to be happy to others, but don't truly feel this way internally. To everyone else, it looks like you're having the time of your life, but on the inside, you feel as though something is missing. No matter what you accomplish, you still feel unfulfilled.
Pretending joy or happiness can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, helping us discover or enhance our capacity for these positive feelings.
They may not laugh much or even smile. The person may exhibit negative thought patterns with "all or nothing statements" indicating hopelessness. These statements include sentences like “I can't do anything right”; “I never do well at work”; “I always make the wrong choices”; and “My life is never going to get better.”
Fidgeting, wandering eyes and reducing their responses to umms and ahhs are all a sign that the other person is mentally checking out of both the conversation and the emotional performance.
Pretending to be happy in a relationship can take its toll on your emotional heart. If your heart feels heavy when you're around your sweetheart, it could be a sign that you are pretending to be something you're not when you're together, and your heart has finally had enough.
“It's called 'smiling depression' because a person can seem to be happy, without cares, but underneath the 'smiling' facade, that person may be sad, unhappy and depressed.”
Faking Happiness Can Be Harmful
Faking happiness is more harmful than helpful. First, you will not get the help and support you need. Second, and more important, you are deceiving yourself. The first step on the road to mental health and emotional contentment is to be honest about your situation.
True happiness is the combination of positive emotions and having a sense that life matters in some way. This can emerge from things like doing work that we value, engaging in fun activities, making an impact in the world, or building stronger connections with others.
Signs of Happiness
Feeling like you are living the life you wanted. Going with the flow and a willingness to take life as it comes. Feeling that the conditions of your life are good. Enjoying positive, healthy relationships with other people.
Russ' research shows that play gives children better emotional coping skills and helps reduce anxiety. According to Russ, play simulates emotion. Because they're pretending, children are able to feel a full range of emotions and become comfortable with them.
Genuinely happy people don't stress or worry over what others think about them. Instead, they concentrate on what they think of themselves based on who they are and how they behave. This is primarily about being able to look yourself in the mirror and feel good about the person you see.
“Smiling depression” is a term for someone living with depression on the inside while appearing perfectly happy or content on the outside. Their public life is usually one that's “put together,” maybe even what some would call normal or perfect.
phoney. adjective. informal someone who is phoney pretends to be friendly, clever, kind etc.
Noun. pseudo-empathy (uncountable) The understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person, but without identification, care or urge to improve their condition. The power to manipulate another person's emotional condition for one's own benefit.
Fake empathy is when you give the impression that you understand and care without truly connecting and engaging with the vulnerability the other person is showing you.
Be honest and upfront about it. It's important to approach them with sincerity and genuine care, not anger and judgment. Although you might mean well, people don't often take lightly to being called “disingenuous” or “fake”, so expect some push back and disagreement on their side.
Following Sackett (2011), we define faking as a conscious and purposeful change in a person's behavior, such as modifying responses on a self-report questionnaire so they are different from one's “true” personality (Ziegler et al., 2011) to achieve a certain goal in a specific situation.
An imposter is a person who pretends to be someone else. Someone who tries to convince you that he's your long lost cousin in order to get an invitation to stay in your awesome apartment is an imposter.