I think everyone does the fake smile. I do it everyday. When someone upsets me I smile, and when some one makes me angry, I laugh. There's also the occasion where I am meeting new people. Whatever mood I'm in, I smile. I think we learn at a young age that smiling and laughing are the socially acceptable thing to do. We train ourselves to act how we think we are supposed to act.
Have you ever noticed, that when someone hears a joke, they will laugh and at the same time look at the other people in the room to see if they are laughing? You know something is truley funny, if you are sitting in a room by yourself, and you are still laughing. We develop a social laugh (hahaha,hehehe), and then there's the natural uncontrollable laughter (the good stuff). The real uncontrollable laughter makes your eyes water and your stomach hurt, and afterwards, you feel like you just got a work out.
Don't fret lonely beauty, we all have a little bit of sociopath inside of us. A lot of people smile when they really don't want to, especially at work. It's how they hide what's bothering them. I try to be as real as possible, but there are many situations that I've encountered where I feel like I'm required to turn on the fake switch.

Definitely - I work in a gym and it's part of my job to be happy so the members will be motivated to be happy to be there too. It does come with a cost though, as every day after work I feel exhausted from having to be what I'm not for six to nine hours.

i don't know why, but since i became lonely, it's always been like faking my smile, i used to be a cheerful person and so on, but when problems appeared i tried to find comfort in my "friends" to tell them my problems and how i feel, but i soon realised they don't need my like this, crying on their shoulders and i became even lonelier, i lost a lot of friends, now i fake my smile everyday and i don't even realise it...sometimes thought i just don't have any more power to smile, so i just show them all how i feel, nobody cares i now this but i don't care either what they think anymore...

a kiss and a big smile!

not bothering if people know am sad but i been working in tourism feilds and the most important part of my work was my smile ,,,, i dont know if u ever looked in the mirorr to see hows ur smile looks when u sad , its faded and if u looked deeply u see its not true thing but the problem is noone looking deeply most of us care about surfaces nothing more if u smile so u happy ,, other thing am sure its so useful if people know that u sad may be theyll help u or u think this is a dignity matter the whole univrse is built on every thing  needs every thing , we all need god help and blessing ,moons needs suns bars and lovers need the moon ,,,,, and we need sometimes another hand to wrip out our tears ( i hope that my poor english isnot bothering u )

Wow, I wish I could fake smile, it would really help me when I'm upset and I try to hide it from my parents. Instead they just scream at me since I cry way to much.

I never smile, except for when I laugh, which I hardly ever do. I worry teachers since I never smile and cry often in class. I also scare all the other students away from me...

a fake smile may be good- if you cant make yourself happy then at least it could make someone else happy. I've had plenty of horrible days that were saved by someone else's smile.
Even if your not happy, a smile can still be genuine.

Hello, I am new here and I know what all of you are saying..to convince other's your doing fine when on the inside you are slowly dieing. How you somehow manage to get through another day when all I want to do is lay down and quit....I am one of those who say when I go to my gym everyone says 'hi' I am popular there and everyone thinks I am a ok ..a few people know of some of my problems, but noone could begin to understand how lonely and dead I feel inside....I understand what all of you feel.

I feel disgusted with myself for the fake face I present to the public......everyone I know thinks of me as the quiet, dignified, polite person that does good in school, always lends a helping hand when asked, and will always give you a positive, reasuring message about the way your life is going. In reality, although I enjoy being kind to people, I really wish I didn't have to always act like such a happy lappy funcake. What? Do the people I talk to actually think I enjoy being alone most of the time? Do they think I like the fact that I'll never experience what it means to love someone? Do they think I don't mind it that nobody ever comes up to talk with me? It's unfortunate that nobody I know in this world understands what a cynical person I've become. OUCH! Ughh...what was that? Oh, just a sharp pain in my chest, my doctor said my hearts getting colder.

we sometimes have to fake our smiles, i brought up to do that. i bet everybody in this universe does that. sometimes we have to. or even laugh, laughter can be an escape from being depressed. for me i sometime feel so sad i cant cry anymore so there is no other option but to laugh it off. crazy?? maybe, but if it makes me feel better, why not?

Ok, I've never been a stripper or a belly dancer - although I wouldn't mind being pretty like one. But any profession dealing with people is the same. My background is sales - and I have always felt like I was on stage. All those positive attitude books I've read - all those "fake" smiles I put on.. Working and smiling - and going through the motions. I once had a customer that made a comment to a fellow worker. The customer said that I must have such a wonderful life because I am always so happy. My co-worker nearly choked on his lunch.

The problem with friends is, they expect me to be that same person I am at work. I am terrified to be myself because friends, and even my husband - have been pushed away by me. I didn't think I complained any more than anyone else in my life has.. I have always been there for them... but when it is my turn - nobody wants to hear it. Now, I hide the real me for fear of losing friends and being alone.