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Stop Asking Me How I’m Doing, Because I’m Not Okay
Unless you really want to know, then it’s not worth asking if you can’t handle knowing someone else’s truth
Every time someone asks me the question, “How are you?” I cringe a little bit inside. Do people realize how much of a loaded question this can be? And depending on your relationship to the person who’s asking, the response can vary from a short, one-word answer to an intense, three-hour phone call.
But, most of the time, the common scenario leans closer towards the one-word-answer side of the spectrum.
Of course, I’m sure many of us dream of the day when we pour our heart out to the random cashier that asks how we’re doing and we just fall apart in the middle of bagging our groceries, give them every single gory detail of the problems in our life, and ugly-cry until our throats aches.
Unfortunately, seldom does this scenario actually play out.
Instead, we pull ourselves together, eager to keep our common sense in tact, respond with a simple, “I’m good”, and smile just to avoid raising any suspicions. And this is often the case when it comes to the people we encounter on a daily basis as well — co-workers, friends, family members.
