Is This Silly/naive Of Me?

[Cida]

Sometimes, I feel so innocent and young. My PTSD has gotten a lot better on my own- I'm feeling happier, but I still get really frightened whenever I hear that someone is having a bad day. I will immediately go to them and suggest they do things for themselves that make them happy, or I'll try to cheer them up. My trauma deals with people telling me stuff that was too much for my brain to handle (and that made my brain go into shock, and I feel guilty for not being able to handle what people told me). So whenever someone says something that sounds a little "off" (sad or bordering on depressive to me; I always take every statement of this sort seriously) and do my best to try to cheer people up or make them feel good. I guess you could call it a stressor.

Is it naive of me to think that I can brighten someone's day if they feel bad? Is this panic and my reaction somehow a repetition of some sort- trying to right what I did wrong by speaking instead of shutting down? And am I being selfish, doing this when it doesn't even have anything to do with me?

 

[Izu]

I don't know that it is 'bad', but it may be intrusive?

Some people would appreciate the attempts to cheer them up, but others may feel pressured to have to be happier just to please you. Are you trying to cheer them up, or are you trying to cheer yourself up because it's not ok for them to not be happy?

I don't know. You're intentions are good, but it doesn't always help the situation, and can often make the person feel worse if they don't cheer up. Maybe ask them if they want to watch a funny movie with you, so you can both laugh?

 

[Tojil]

People deserve to have a down day. Having down days enables us to have up days. What's wrong with not being happy for a day? Why do you feel the need to fix people? Really, I think this is the issue. Brightening someone's day is good, but always doing it for everyone you know who is down, well that can seem intrusive. If you do it to excess, people WILL get annoyed and you'll only see a fake happy side of them.