Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Feeling well adjusted is often a performance rather than reality, reflecting the human condition.
In plain terms
We try to seem okay even when we aren't, which is just being human.
What can you take from it?
Accept that pretending to be fine is common for everyone.

Where it applies

  • daily interactions
  • mental health struggles
  • social anxiety

Putting it to work

  • accept imperfections
  • seek support
  • be honest

Questions to consider

  • How much do you pretend to be well?
  • Why do we feel pressure to seem adjusted?

Another view

This normalization of pretending can prevent people from seeking help.

More from Douglas Coupland

  1. Compromise is said to be the way of the world and yet I find myself feeling sick trying to accept what it has done to me.

    Permalink to quote #38
  2. What is the one thing more than any other thing that makes one person different from any other person?

    Permalink to quote #40
  3. ...I realized that once people are broken in certain ways they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never…

    Permalink to quote #37

Related quotes

  1. I have been a comedian for a long time, so forgive me while I plaster on a fake smile and plough through this shit one more time.

    Bill HicksBill Hicks quote #87
  2. No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human beast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come thro…

    Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud quote #5
  3. Most of the appearance of mirth in the world is not mirth, it is art. The wounded spirit is not seen, but walks under a disguise.

    Robert SouthRobert South quote #7