This sounds familiar. For me, add masking ADHD over enthusiasm, and other factors.
Comment on How can a person be very sad, irritated or angry and still not show it on their face ?
Squeak@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I’ve had depression for years. You get good at pretending to be happy/ok and you mostly just become numb and very good at hiding things on the outside.
agent_flounder@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Enoril@jlai.lu 3 months ago
/agree
After some time, you just shield yourself automatically with several layers of protection and have several ready-to-use answer so everything is fine (spoiler: it’s not)
knightly@pawb.social 3 months ago
Same!
I’m nonbinary and spent the last 25-ish years suppressing my feelings in order to blend in at school and work. One ends up getting very good at masking themselves, wearing a “Resting Neutral Face” so often that it becomes a reflexive defense mechanism.
I finally escaped Texas a couple of years back and got started on hormone therapy, which has been amazing. My friends and relatives have all commented on how much happier I seem now, but I haven’t been able to drop the mask entirely as of yet. I still have a hard time showing negative emotions, Anger and sadness are wired in like a PTSD trigger that numbs my expression before anything more than concern reaches my face.