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Reaction to "smile"

colin

Hi.

I recently posted a photo of myself on facebook, enjoying a few days walking. I wasn't smiling in the photo and somebody commented telling me to smile. It really annoyed me to the point where it was all I could think about for most of the rest of the day (and clearly still thinking about it 2 days later)

Afterwards, I remembered many other times when somebody has told me to smile and how often that lead to the end of my enjoyment of whatever it was I should be smiling at.

So, I'm trying to work out if this is an autism thing, childhood trauma, somehow related to demand avoidance, a reaction to criticism that I'm not doing enjoyment correctly... Has anybody any thoughts on this or could point me towards possible causes and solutions?

Thanks

Parents

  • I've been trying to perfect a fake smile for those moments. Otherwise I always look a bit fed up or angry even when I'm actually happy.

    My wife and kids say "dad, smile with your teeth!" When they take pictures, knowing that it'll make me laugh, so that works, but only because we're close and we've joked about It for years.

    Anyone else saying  I need to smile annoys me and as you say it often bursts the bubble of being happy. PDA may play a role, but a lot of it is me thinking someone suggesting that because I'm not smiling means I'm weird or wrong.

  • in reply to Autisician

    My manually applied smile looks horrendous. No matter how much I practice it so I don't bother. But I do occasionally have a natural one. I should find one of those photos and Photoshop all the others.

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