Man is a social being. We tend to share our belongings as well as mental state with the company around us. Happiness, misery, confidence, jealousy, any other feeling we might be having, we inadvertently share it with those around us.
Misery is defined as great unhappiness, ache or pain. Misery is feeling mentally and emotionally down. And misery loves company.
At our happiest moments, we consciously attempt to share our happiness with everyone around us. That is why immediately you receive a piece of good news, you try to call your loved ones and closest friends.
It is why parents of young children can’t stop sharing their baby’s pictures, as well as regale you with endless stories of something cute and funny their child did.
It is not exactly the same with misery. Most times, we try to hide our pains, consciously going out of our way to avoid getting others as unhappy as we are. Except for the sadists and psychotics.
A sadist is someone who derives pleasure from the pains of others, while a psychotic fellow is someone with a deranged personality and a distorted view of reality.
Those are normally the people who will gladly go around spreading misery. But then, in Nigeria as in many other countries of the world, mental health is largely under-served or totally ignored.
The saying “many are mad, few are roaming” will apply here. You never want to believe that your friend or someone within your social circle isn’t totally alright.
That is until you look back and observe the vibe that each person always gives. It is normal to be unhappy sometimes, after all, life is not a bed of roses. But then for someone to never find something positive ever to share with you, and rather always spread negativity, then you need to be careful.
Not that the person is automatically psychotic, still, the person is definitely someone you should be careful around.
Give them the best news, they will still point out something negative you can expect from it. Tell them something positive about themselves, they will expertly deflect it and reveal something deflating. When you find out something good had happened to them that they didn’t inform you about, as you bring it up, they will casually inform you of something overwhelmingly sad, that will leave you drained rather than elated.
This are the unrepentant and incorrigible pessimists, who have made it a life mission to flip every smile into a frown. They will gladly turn an innocent child into a hardened skeptic.
To live a healthy happy life, it is necessary to remove people like these from the company we keep. We don’t want to look at the world through rose-tinted lenses, neither do we want to view the world through a gloomy cloudy lens.
Misery loves company, but I can’t be that company.

Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator and Creative Writer.
Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. @IJoswil

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