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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Cadillac
Indeed they do but the anxiety with most people on the spectrum is quite different and very misplaced in comparison to someone who is considered normal. I presume that most people suffer from anxiety as a trait in most new social situations (due to the fact that the unknown must scare us all to some extent) However the anxiety i feel from walking out side my front door is probably (but not in all cases) ten fold as bad to that of a "normal" person.
As an example when i go into a social situation with any one person i will very carefully watch body language to gauge reactions from the person i am interacting with (quite normal i presume?). If i get even the slightest undertone that they are losing interest i will instantly change the subject matter. When this change takes places and i make my presumption based on observation, my anxiety goes from say 7/10 to 10/10 and will have a huge detrimental effect on my perceptions of how the conversation went and also weather or not i like this person due to my perception of their reaction to my conversation. I would also say that i will take my perceived knock back (which may or may not have actually been perceived by others in the same manner) in a hugely detrimental way and this will determine how i perceive them in the future. To stop this from happening over years i have learned to instead of being myself create specific persona's for specific personalities that i will come across (of course the issues arise when i start to behave as myself rather than as the persona designed to manage the anxiety in these situations)
articulating my feelings is very difficult but what i am getting at is that every social interaction for me is like say, A job interview. It doesnt matter if its with someone in a shop, the postman or an associate. Only the closest family members do not cause this problem and the Internet is another gem of a place where i do not suffer from this issue.
Now my case is probably very different from 99% of all other people who are on the autistic spectrum.
i also waffle on............   |
I understand all of this possibly more than you realise, since my son experiences virtually all that you mention. I was just pointing out that it's possible for all of us to experience severe anxiety and stress, and for many of us to try and 'become' someone we're not by creating different personalities within ourselves - not entirely limited to Asperger's people.