Were you overall shy/reserved as a kid?

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I was shy/reserved to varying degrees as a child. I was selectively mute for about two years, and it took me a while after that to fully emerge from it. These days, I don't really suffer from social phobia, but it takes me a while to get comfortable in new situations.

Hmm... I think that could be said for me too. I tend to see people as scenery I pass. Unless they're someone I like.

I was "extremely shy"...this is one of the main reasons why I was overlooked for an AS diagnosis until in my teenage years (up until about a year or two ago).

I see people as more like scenery, yes. When I interact with them, I see them as amazingly complex networks of information, experiences and knowledge and personality, a new thing to be learned--fascinating but overwhelming. A human being is just too complex to keep in one's mind all the time. If I did that, I think it would feel like how a NT would feel if they had to constantly do calculus. Instead, I try to understand people one at a time and in quiet surroundings.

So I guess in a way, trying to understand people is something I can only do when I try very hard, so most of the time it's safer not to try, and just to rely on social scripts.

Yes I was EXTREMELY shy even before my bullying started. Even in preschool (where nobody disliked me and I was well treated) I remember almost never saying a word and preferred playing by myself at all times or if they offered the teachers but never with any classmates. I only came out of my shell at age 16 where I worked for a BIG retailers and gained the respect of a lot of people as an honest and dedicated employee who cared about doing a good job. Still shy but could surprise some people. Now you would never suspect I'm shy at all because I'm probably the most well known of the 200+ employees at where I work. Older adults tend to love a guy who gets along with everyone and doesn't play politics or gossip.

From 6 to 7 years old, I was loud, hyper and didn't clam up when talking to people but I did like alone time to do my stimming after social situations. I wasn't really shy but rather an introvert. From 8 to 12 years old, I became more quiet but not exactly shy. I wasn't shy until my early teens or so.

Before I started school, I was a very happy and outgoing child. I got progressively more shy as I grew up. In high school and college, my only friends were my books and my cat. I also had unusual interests that weren't shared by others. I could talk to adults because they knew things and valued knowledge. I wish I could have added knowledge of other people to my book knowledge. I would have done much more with my life.

I voted for Yes Extremely probably partly due to being bullied alot. I still am shy & reserved.

When I was a kid, I got myself into many awkward situations because I was desperate to fit in.

I was extremely shy as a kid. I wouldn't answer if people asked me something, I was always observing and not participating.

I have always been distant and aloof due to moderate to severe autism. Although not all who are moderate/severe are like that.

I was extremely not shy which I think is an autistic thing too. I had no sense of boundaries or that people would gossip or that there were things you weren't meant to do or say in front of other people. If anything, I liked to get a rise out of people. Even my specialist interest started that way.
I still struggle with that inability to set boundaries online now which is why sometimes I might say things on here that make me vulnerable and if you want to know why I'm extremely anonymous, it's cos of that and being aware of it.
These days I'm overall shy and reserved. Social anxiety caught up with me in my mid twenties and I started to majorly worry about what others thought of me. But I don't know how to establish boundaries without saying hardly anything at all/while still interacting.

As a kid I was extremely outgoing and because of this a lot of the issues I had weren't noticed. I lacked (and still am lacking) in the understanding of boundaries. The older I got, I started to realize i was a looooot different from my piers and I couldn't understand why. My social unawareness really started to show more around 8-10 as that's when kids started to form friend groups, and social rules progressively became more difficult to decipher. I was also bullied a lot for this because I didn't know my place, when to back off, if somebody didn't want to talk to me, etc. Boundaries and stuff like that. I was very quiet around large groups of people, though, because they scared me. I'm more reserved now, but I am definitely an outgoing person when I'm comfortable.

Me too.

As a young child I had very few boundaries and I loved spending time with adults because my peers disliked me. I was exceptionally outgoing, and my parents had to keep their eyes on me at all times because I'd often wander off and talk to adults who were unknown to me. My attention was always well received but naturally, it worried my parents a lot. Warnings of 'stranger danger' didn't really sink in until I was about seven or so. Around that time I went through a long phase of being overly wary of people of didn't know (even other children) but was still outgoing.

I remember teachers shouting at me a lot when I was at school, even though I was never cheeky or naughty. At the time I didn't know what I'd done wrong, but looking back, I did find it difficult to follow multi step instructions and I lacked initiative. My peers noticed this very quickly and excluded me. Unfortunately being shouted at didn't have much of an effect because I wasn't told where I was going wrong! I'd either make the same mistakes or I'd work too slowly.

I now know that I had severe executive functioning deficits, and that's the main reason why I became withdrawn by the time I hit adolescence. I'd now describe myself as extremely introverted, even though I don't think it's my natural personality.

Yes, extremely shy and reserved from early childhood on. I also became aware at a very early age that I was different, and was treated as an outcast. I am almost 60 years old now, and still shy and reserved, but can handle social situations for limited periods better now, thanks to having done a lot of temp work during my work years. It forced me to deal with new people a lot. I am still a non-social, hermit type of person, who lives alone by choice. Due to health issues, I can no longer work, but the benefits I gained from all that temping are still with me.

I used to "temp," too.

And that helped me with dealing with people.