Alexithymia

In all forms of conversation asking someone , how they are doing is such a mundane thing that we do everyday but hardly ever think about it
The normal response would be: I'm fine thanks and how are you ?
I will then say the same by letting them know i'm doing ok!
Then it stands to good reason that we will move on to another subject .
We are so used to it that every now and then we find ourselves greeting people and expecting the same stimulus response
And this time they happen to tell you how they really feel
How stressed, lonely, heartbroken, how much the past few days had drained them, how their relationships are failing, how they struggle to make ends meet and so on
And in such cases you don't have the necessary social skills to accommodate how real and painful the situation just got
I mean what do you say in such cases
How do you respond
They didn't teach us about these type of conversations
So we find ourselves asking people around us about how we should respond
When you tell me the truth about how you really are, you mess up the rules of normal conversation and interaction

We need to find that place inside of us where we can accommodate each other and stop pretending everything is ok when we cry ourselves to sleep every night but we have so many friends and chat buddies( in our lingo followers ) .So I urge you next time someone ask you how you are for once just be real and tell them how you really feel and see them open up to you. We are all broken in one form or another, we can heal each other and find comfort in each others arms.