On a more serious note, when i'm asked how i'm doing or how things are I also struggle to engage with such mundane pleasantries. There's no stock standard response so I come up with something on the fly and have noticed my answers are becoming more brutally honest (which is great!).
Here's a conversation with the only cafe left in this city I go to
Q: How's your day? Been busy, boss?
A: No, I'm still trying to figure out what to do. I lost my job over the "vaccine" mandates.
Q: Oh, that's no good.... embarrassed silence
Q: Hopefully.. cut him off
A: "Hopefully" is what got me, you, us into this situation and hopefully wont help anyone get out of it.
A: Have a great day and see you next time!!!!
Take my coffee and leave
I wish I could be a little bird nearby listening to your responses. I like how you cut it off and got to the point, then see ya, with "have a great day". If Australia gets any more like Canada, I'm going to feel like I'm living there, not here, minus all those wonderful birds.
Yesterday, I tried out two new responses. First situation (office in my building), two people, asking me how I am. I ignored both questions and focused on the reason I was there. They let it go. After that, I had the thought that I can simply get away with ignoring this question.
Second situation was a different shop I frequent. That time, I preempted the question by striking first with "How are you?" Shop keeper answered me, then asked me a couple times quickly "How are you? How are you?", which I directed into commenting on the weather (#1 Canadian safe topic), smoothly surpassing the question. With that exchange, I realized I'm just talking to a robot on repeat, wanting the "correct" input, before it can perform the next calculation.
I was more satisfied with the outcome from the first situation. Frankly, I don't even want to waste energy verbalizing anything. It's at that point. Last year, a friend said this to me..."Talk is silver, silence is gold." I see a great deal of value in silence, now more than ever before.