People Share 10 Subtle Signs That Someone Might Be Struggling Emotionally

The people who seem the happiest are often the ones hiding the most emotions. In this list, people share 10 subtle but powerful signs that someone might be struggling emotionally, offering insights that could help us all show a little more compassion.

1.

A lot of people believe depression is only sadness or withdrawal from life, but it can be so many things. For me, it’s mostly anger. Anger that I can feel bubbling up, but have little control to stop from boiling over. I’m ashamed afterward, but unless I 100% isolate, I know it’ll happen again.

HarloHasIt / Reddit

2.

Change of behavior day to day. Someday, the person will be joyful, motivated and look energetic while the day after, it will be grumpy, demotivated and tired. Constant change of mood is a big sign of depression and will have an impact on all other aspects in their life.

Faelysis / Reddit

3.

I thought I was being a successful person. I wanted to do well in life, so I was hard on myself to keep myself on track. When I didn’t live up to the standards I set for myself, I beat myself up for it. If you don’t have high expectations for yourself, you must be some sort of soft special snowflake who wants to have the world slow down for them instead of rising to the occasion. Right?

It wasn’t until I had a therapist tell me to give myself a break already. What I was doing wasn’t helping me and was hurting my relationships with people and my health.

TetrisCa***bal / Reddit

4.

Sometimes basic human contact can be so draining I’ll cry over the thought of an event as trivial a birthday party, or be unable to go into the office because acting ok seems like an impossible feat. When I notice myself self-isolating, I know I need to ask for help, and I try to ask right away, despite my brain saying I’m being a squeaky wheel.

XDariaMorgendorferX / Reddit

5.

My therapist asked me, “What brought you here?”. My answer was a jumble of statements, one thought half-finished before leading to the next. I barely kept eye contact.

I tried to gather my thoughts, and my therapist hit me with this, “Do you sit down in the shower?” She may as well have blown an airhorn. I don’t remember how long I stared at her like she was some demon before answering in the affirmative. I remember she looked a little satisfied — like she was glad she’d gotten that one right — before her expression disappeared.

It wasn’t something that pinged my radar because I’d loved long, hot showers my whole life. But sitting during the shower was a recent development at the time. I only started because I wanted to stay in the shower with the hot, noisy water pounding on my head until it got cold, and standing was too much effort. Her educated guess both shook me and made me feel seen, in a way my previous therapist never accomplished.

omg_i_love_your_hair / Reddit

6.

Over-agreeability is a subtle sign that someone has given upon advocating for themself and no longer cares enough about their immediate environmental stresses to react to them other than just signaling falsely that everything is “fine” because then people leave you alone — it’s way too exhausting and requires ownership of one’s life to do anything else.

hoybowdy / Reddit

7.

I had tons of friends in college and then experienced a pretty bad depressive episode that lasted a while. My friends kept inviting me places or trying to contact me, and I’d turn them down or ignore their messages. I was just so tired all the time. The invites dwindled and the messages stopped coming in.

Once I found myself on the other side of things and in a much better place, there was only a small handful of people left in my life outside of my family members. I’ve never really recovered my social circle. I’ve tried reaching out to people and apologizing for my behavior, and they say they understand and that it’s okay, but things are never the same. It’s really hard to get friendships back after letting them go.

zimbulika / Reddit

8.

Losing interest in literally everything and opting to just sleep instead. At one point, I couldn’t even bring myself to watch TV or Netflix, I just didn’t care. Same with being on my phone. Then I lost interest in being awake, and so beautiful sleep became the answer.

lizzard_lady8530 / Reddit

9.

While there are many not-so-subtle signs, I think one that gets overlooked often is ‘emotional autopilot’. You know, when you’re just going through the motions without much feeling or awareness. Everything (good or bad) is ‘meh’ and devoid of wonder or pleasure. You’re bored and unamused and disconnected, but not at the same time.

LuneNoir211 / Reddit

10.

Lack of concentration. I struggled to stay focused unless I’m doing more than one thing at once. For example, I need to be chatting while playing video games to concentrate on the game otherwise I end up daydreaming/dissociating, or if I’m watching TV I’ll be browsing Reddit at the same time.

emvaz / Reddit

Sometimes, the smallest changes can make the biggest difference. In this article, 10 people reveal the habits, choices, or discoveries that transformed their lives. Their insights should inspire a change in your own!