• gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    To a certain degree, yes. Acting happy can cause you to do activities (connection) that can actually make you more happy.

    In general though, a lot of unhappiness is founded in either an emotional response to an unhappy situation or in some type of chronic illness. Feigned happiness does not ever address underlying causes that should be addressed therapeutically.

    • toofpic@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Completely agree with the situational stuff. Imagine you’re sitting in a park, trying to kick off a “just chilling and having fun” for yourself, but actually being nervous or anxious. But just sitting on your ass in a nice place can do wonders (remember it doesn’t count if you doomscroll) - from personal experience, my brain frantically tries to find some job for itself for a while: entertainment! thrill! flying space cats! - but when nothing happens, it switches to “okay, wake me up is something happens” mode, and I suddenly don’t need to run somewhere and do stuff.