Ever replied to someone when they wasn't talking to you?

Post Reply New Topic

I find this SO embarrassing.

When I was waiting for the bus in the bus station, it was really, really late, and it strolled in half an hour late and a load of teenagers all piled on before the rest of us, and us regular passengers weren't very happy about it. As we were walking upto the bus, a man, who was walking right next to me, said, ''isn't this great?!'' in a sarcastic voice, and I said, ''I know - where are we all meant to sit?!'' and the man said, ''after waiting so long aswell!'' and I said, ''yeah!'' But then I realised he was actually talking to his wife who was behind him. But he didn't turn his head round towards her when he spoke. He kept in line with me and it sounded like he was just uttering things to me (like sometimes people do), and normally people don't stare right at you whilst walking along, but I just assumed he was still talking to me. I felt like such an idiot!! !

Also, before I got off the bus one day, the bus-driver (who I fancy) asked about a timetable, and I said, ''I don't need one - I've already got one, thank you.'' And then he said, ''I was asking my brother if he wanted a new timetable'' (his brother was sitting in a seat behind him), and I felt stupid. I think he could tell, so he smiled and said, ''you can have another one if you want, darling.'' I tried to be confident, so I said, ''nah, that's OK'', and laughed, hoping he wouldn't really be turned off by my stupid faux pas - which he wasn't (this was a few months ago now). But because he didn't raise his voice (because you do raise your voice a little when you're speaking to somebody who isn't in your vision), and I was standing up the front right next to him, so I just naturally assumed he was speaking to me. And I looked at him too as he spoke, and he looked at me aswell, but without turning his head.

And lastly, (this is the most embarrassing, stupidest thing of all), I saw my friend in the shop, and she was holding a phone upto her ear but was speaking to me (wasn't quite sure what she was doing with her phone). I knew she was speaking to me because she was answering everything I said, you know, like how a conversation goes. Then (because I hadn't seen her for ages) she was harping on about her troubles she's had recently, and swearing too, and I thought she was telling me, and I was answering, but then I found out she had been harping on about all her troubles to somebody on her phone. I don't think she heard me answering to all that, but other people in the shop heard, and were looking at me funny and I just felt stupid. This girl isn't an Aspie, but she doesn't do eye-contact very well, so whether she speaks to me or not, she doesn't look up at me, so I wasn't sure who she was speaking to.

I hate it when these things happen, and I do make a lot of eye contact. It's because I am told to be more confident, and so when I am, I tend to be a bit too confident, and then make myself look stupider than I would have done if I never opened my mouth. Anyone else have this annoying embarrassing problem?

All. The. Time.

At least 2-3 times a week, I'll think someone is talking to me when they're not. Sometimes I get so embarrassed I can't go back to the location for weeks. I've had people call me a ret*d in public for it before.

ya sucks, kind of like when you think you see someone you know so you wave or say hello only to realize it isn't them.

i hate those blu-tooth things people wear and you can't tell who the heck they're talking to so you start answering them but they are not talking to you.

This happens to me rarely, seeing as the only people who talk to me are the one person who texts me and my mother. Since she only uses her monotone business voice with me, I know when she's talking to me. Usually my problem is I don't answer back in the first place.

Yes, all the freakin' time... I hate it. Everyone always seems to look at me like I'm ret*d afterwards, as though I'm the ONLY one who's ever made the mistake of thinking I was being talked to when I wasn't.

Yes. I was once in the gym and someone from work was with a friend and I still don't know to this day if she was smiling/waving at me or someone else behind me.

Rarely but yes - it's not the best experience.

Yeah, I did it in front of 5 or 6 people and in front of my sister and her hubby, with the same person too. He always gets me. He will be like he whats up then Ill answer oh nothing. The he will start saying something, Ill look up and see that he was talking on the phone.

I make sure this doesn't happen to me so I always look at the person when I hear them speak just to see if they were looking at me or not.

It has happened to me on occasion, and you can rest assured that it has happened to everyone else as well lol

What I hate is when someone waves at you, and you wave back...you know where this is going don't you? lol

Personally I wouldn't worry about it, at least now you have had the icebreaker screw up with the driver lol

This has probably happened many times to me. The girl I mentor did this a few times last week when she was setting up things for a concert she was organizing...but then again, I don't blame her, there was so many people and so much going on that it was hard not to get scatterbrained then!

Funny you should ask...

I've certainly done that. I've made errors both ways, when someone does speak to me but I am not looking at them and I dont realize it was directed at me. That error then makes me over correct and answer everyone within earshot! The embarrassment burns a little bit, but so far I've lived through it.

The worst was when I was working part time in a store, and some manager was speaking and would say "go do this" and I would start to do it and then realize someone else was actually who was told to do the task. Oops.

My family and people who are used to me know I will do this and make sure to clarify, my mom especially has to clarify which "honey" she wants to do something or which one she expects to answer her question. Honestly, sometimes I can't even tell if someone is talking to the dog or to me, so I will react to things that are said to the dog like stop sitting on the couch or whatever. That is pretty silly, but it happens.

All the time. Actually, I frequently do both-answer when I'm not being spoken to and not answer when I am. If someone is not looking at me when they speak to me, unless the context of the question makes it really obvious, I don't always know that they are speaking to me.

Yes, right when cellphones became tiny.

It happens, and it's embarrassing, and I'm pretty sure it happens to everybody, not just Aspies. Maybe we make more of it because we mess up so many different ways in conversation.

Between me and my daughter, it's a matter of mutual annoyance, because she wears one of those bluetooth things when she's driving, and she's on the phone with her husband half the time, and when I'm riding with her she'll say something that I think is to me, and when I answer her she'll get mad, "I'm on the phone!". But she and I have a lot of mutual annoyance going.