Smiling depression

The worst kind of pain is when you’re smiling just to stop the tears from falling.

Hiding behind a smile and a false sense of satisfaction can prevent those around you from being able to help… RESULT = falling deeper into a black pit of depression.

It’s so common to hide our sadness, stress and worries behind a smile. It often feels a lot more simple than having to explain it to others, right? Did you know that 3 out of 4 people suffering from depression try desperately to hide it?

Ultimately by hiding and internalizing our emotions, it becomes so consuming that eventually it will come a time that you eventually fall apart because the weight of the mask is just too much to bear.

Being an introvert myself… it was common for me to internalize my feelings rather than having to deal with them.

Which led to my emotional crumbling. Sooner or later, irritability, fatigue, sadness and tension find their way out and the wrath becomes much harder to deal and cope with.

It was my breaking point that ultimately forced me to face my reality and made me feel that I was at a dead end, with no one to turn to.

For me — it was the utter avoidance of denying my feelings of ‘emptiness’. Without acknowledging this — it would have been nearly impossible to fix the problem. When depressive thoughts and feelings aren’t addressed, they typically build up and become far worse.

What people don’t understand is that depression isn’t about the outside — it’s about the inside.

Not everyone experiences depression in the same way. Most people may not even realize they’re depressed, especially if they’re able to function and manage their day to day activities. We have to remove the stigma that we place on what we think depression looks like — someone who is smiling, chipper, functioning, can be suffering demons that no one would ever know about.

I beg anyone who is living this way to be aware that negative emotions DO NOT disappear by themselves… we have to face them.

Take a minute and try to dig deep — is this something you think you may be struggling with? If so — I beg you to reach out. You are not alone. The results are life changing. If you think a loved one is struggling with smiling depression, share your concerns with them, because these are the moments that you should be moving towards them, not away.