crowd in a supermarket

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preface: I thought for a long time I was agoraphobic, yet I'm just an Aspie like most of you (I suppose since my headshrinker told me something about it, and I scored 178 and 45 in the tests)

well...what difference do you find-feel between these situations?

1 you are in large place such a supermarket or a shopping centre, full of noisy crowd, you are alone or even with a friend doing your things

2 you are invited for dinner, or in a bar, and there are many people you don't know, but they "interact"

me:
1 no problem, the only one could be the noise but I taught my ears to cut all indesiderable sounds (I'm a musician)

2 many problems, my body and my nerves make me feel like a piece of wood, I try to breathe deeply, I concentrate (and of course I lose what people are talking about meanwhile), I look for a "safe" place, such a distant corner, or just sit where I am, don't move and pretend I'm listening to the nonsense and superficial discussions. I hope no one is going to make me questions, for I just would be so "sincere" to tell them I don't care about their talking and I'm just thinking to my own things, which are more and more interesting.

Hello, I am also new on these forums.

I have trouble with both of the described situations.

But as for you, the greatest trouble comes in the dinner-like situation.

The only problem I face in public areas, such as a supermarket, is that all the noise and movement makes me uncomfortable. What makes this easier than a dinner, is the privacy. I am not required to interract with a bunch of people.

Hi there

I'm undiagnosed (self diagnosed) and am borderline NT / aspie - I function OK, but feel very awkward a lot of the time.

Scenario 1 is something I am very uncomfortable with. I am OK if people are being predicatable, and I can quite enjoy going to the supermarket when it's quiet, but when it's busy and people are moving all over the place I can't work out where best to position myself, and end up with sort-of tunnel vision, and feel panicked.

scenario 2 is my idea of hell!

I thought i went to the supermarket at 2 am because im a night person, which i am, but it wasnt clear why i choose 2 am until i tried to shop at 2 pm. I got so aggitated by 2:15 i couldnt finish shopping.

I have more problems in the supermarket - because I don't know anyone and it is a big space and people bump into you . . .

I suppose I wouldn't interact at the dinner party correctly - but I assume that to be there I would have to know one person - so what I would do is to stay on my own except to interact with them - except when it comes to niceities like saying 'hello' to other people when they get right in my space . . .

I agree. At the stores I have a hard time walking around because other people get in the way, and I walk into them because i get flustered.

I have never been to a bar so I dunno. But I suppose it would be the same as lunch period in my highschool, and I stopped eating lunch because it was soo noisy and there were soo many people. And they liked to taunt me because I never talked to anyone. So I just went to the library.