The friend who’s always “on” might be the one who most needs someone to notice when they’re off.

Being relentlessly fine is a role, and roles are tiring to hold. Somebody who is always the upbeat one gets no natural gap in which to say that today is bad, partly because everyone has come to rely on the performance and partly because they have become very good at it. Nobody worrying about them is not evidence that nobody needs to.

If you have a friend like that, ask how they are at a moment with no audience, and ask a second time. Let a silence sit instead of filling it. You are not there to fix anything, only to leave room where the off version is allowed.