There are plenty of ways one can express unhappiness - standing away from the situation, expressing it with your body language, or simply talking about it out loud. And although ‘simply talking about it’ might be the straightest way to find a solution in an uncomfortable situation, we all know that it’s not always so easy; if it were, we’d probably all be so much happier! That said, there are other signs, besides the obvious, that you can look for in a person you care about to see whether they might be feeling unhappy and dissatisfied with something that’s going on in their life. Thankfully, these brave internet people have shared the signs of unhappiness they’ve witnessed in people close to them on this excellent and extremely helpful Reddit thread. So, although it’s not one of our entertaining kind of lists, it is definitely enlightening.
Okay, so to begin with, the Redditors mention some a bit more obvious, though nevertheless often overlooked, signs of an unhappy person. They include but aren’t limited to the person losing any interest in things they used to enjoy, trying to live their life without putting any effort into it, or withdrawing from any social activities. So, if you ever see any of these signs of being unhappy in a person close to you, you might want to start thinking about helping them. Of course, unhappiness and signs of distress might not be as obvious, so these people also mentioned some more subtle signs, like the person delaying their answers to your texts or emails, constantly overthinking the smallest of details, or not sharing any opinions they might’ve expressed freely earlier. Feeling unhappy is definitely a burden and an obstacle, so why not extend a helping hand to those around you if they are showing these signs?
Mental health, as you well know, is extremely important for a person’s overall health and outlook on life. An unhappy person can change, but they often need outside help for that. So, read these signs of unhappiness, and help those around you who might be showing them.
#1
“I think a lot of the time people who are secretly unhappy do their best to make the people they care about laugh and feel happy. As they know what it’s like to feel so down and unhappy with the world they don’t wish for the people they care about to feel that way.”
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49points
#2
"They smile at you because they want to be nice/friendly - but as soon as you look away, the smile falls off their face. Because they kind of put it there, rather than it rising up naturally, once its job is done, they let it go."
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41points
#4
“Lack of interest in life. Lack of energy. Slovenliness, messy room, smelly clothes, unwashed hair, etc. Sleeps a lot. Does not go out.”
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38points
#6
"Emotionally withdrawing, spending time isolated or playing video games all the time to escape."
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25points
#7
Ate02muc said:
"Tired, if they aren’t sleeping well oftentimes something is keeping them up. Also, tiredness is a commonly used excuse to answer 'Are you ok?'"
"Tired, if they aren’t sleeping well oftentimes something is keeping them up. Also, tiredness is a commonly used excuse to answer 'Are you ok?'"
Thoron_Blaster replied:
"Yeah. I've started saying "tired" because people stop prying then. It's socially acceptable. It's not as acceptable to say you feel like life is completely pointless."
"Yeah. I've started saying "tired" because people stop prying then. It's socially acceptable. It's not as acceptable to say you feel like life is completely pointless."
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23points
#8
“They bully others. Happy, well-adjusted people do not inflict misery on others.”
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21points
#9
"Looking for a reason something won't work instead of trying anyway. Always trying to find a way to not do something."
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21points
#10
"Consistently buying things and having the same remorse for wasting money."
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20points
#11
susejrotpar said:
"Heavy use of humor."
"Heavy use of humor."
User №2 replied:
"You either have dopamine or humor, you can't have both."
"You either have dopamine or humor, you can't have both."
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19points
#13
"They tend to stay in bad situations much longer than a well-adjusted person would, which leads other people to believe they're at least somewhat content.
They might hate their job or their spouse or their weight or their life in general, but depression is mentally exhausting and even thinking about taking steps toward getting out of that situation is daunting, especially when you can just stay on autopilot in your current circumstances.
And when you can finally muster the mental motivation to act, then you realize how physically exhausted you are. And if it's that overwhelming to try to get rid of whatever makes you unhappy, sometimes you just stop trying to be happy at all you stop trying to feel anything and let the apathy drive for a while."
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17points
#15
"They start becoming more irritable, maybe they snap a little more often. When this happens they'll usually apologize later and sound either truly regretful or tired. They zone out more, and they lose interest in things they used to love. They never want to do anything. If you ask them if they're okay and they say that they're fine."
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16points
#16
“Poor decisions. Sometimes they’re spending all their emotional energy on the basics; when it’s time to eat or make major purchases they do them on impulse, so they put on weight and get in debt.”
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16points
#17
"My personal tell is eye contact. When I'm in bad moods I tend to avoid looking people in the eyes more or not as long."
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16points
#18
"Not answering emails and texts is a warning sign for me. I start procrastinating about personal correspondence when I'm on my way into a bad depressive episode (and, well, sometimes even when I'm just at baseline, but baseline with clinical depression is pretty unhappy)."
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14points
