Help Me Smile?

[TickTockMan]

Is there something I can do to help my smile? People think I am always mad because I don't show much facial reactions. Today while taking pictures I just looked like a dork. (See pic below. It is from today.)


I do have AS, but is there anything I can do to liven up my facial muscles?


Me "smiling."

 

[kallipolis]

In the captioned photograph your lips are closed tightly suggesting that you are not smiling.

The serious look is not always a "put off" for would be admirers.

Your image does not convey any suggestion of "madness" rather of a serious, and considerate young man.

How we respond to life's daily challenges can change ones perspective, enabling one to smile when understanding that ones life is lived one day at a time.

The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence, encouraging one to live in the moment.

 

[tarallucci]

Maybe you could "practice" in the mirror and remember to assume the smiling expression when among people. It's as simple as moving your lips upwards a bit (you don't have to open your mouth necessarily) but if it's something you have to force and that comes unnaturally I don't see why you should do it for the satisfaction of others.

I was also told to smile more once while taking a picture. I think it has to do with this social madness we have to show we're having a good time all the time or else it is not cool. Just like when you try to complain about something and people think you can just focus on bad things, because it's boring for them to listen (or in this case to look at).

So don't worry and do whatever is comfortable to you. Probably the smiling version of you comes out when you are really enjoying a situation or thought and this is your normal expression which is more than fine. There's a time to laugh uncontrollably and another to be serious, why stress it.

If you had me around for a day you'd learn pretty fast anyway

 

[sixthson]

Staged photographs are rarely the best way to capture smiles, since many people are not natural smilers. The best photos are when someone catches the subject in a natural moment of happiness or humor.

 

[Benvolio]

When you try to smile and are not sure how it looks, open your lips a bit. If the lips are open it may not be the smile you want, but, it will not look like a frown

 

[Essex Boy]

I can see the problem. I'm a member of the no-smile club too. I don't look angry so much as worried. ("Cheer up, it might never happen!"--oh shut up). We have to play the hand we've been dealt, I suppose. It might be useful to remember that smiling doesn't only involve the mouth. Your mouth is the sort of "ground zero" and they need other cues to interpret the expression. When I put a smile on for the camera only my mouth does it and it looks like the top half of my head is dead. The eyes and forehead have to get all wrinkly too, but when I do that it makes me look like a nitwit. I like to shelter behind sunglasses. With a smart pair of very dark aviators you might pass for a Bond villain.

 

[peeonme]

Don't try to smile. Relax and think about something that you like and enjoy, tune out what is around you, in your mind go to the place that you love, the smile will follow.

 

[Benvolio]

Don't try to smile. Relax and think about something that you like and enjoy, tune out what is around you, in your mind go to the place that you love, the smile will follow.

No, some people do not look like they are smiling even when they think they are. Part of it is facial fat. With some older people the muscles sag. I repeat the advice to open the lips.