Feeling stares and people behind you

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im sure this applies to NT as well though

maybe you're just uncomfortable around lots of people you don't know and this is just a manifestation of that. have you had bad experiences with people?

do you think that perhaps your exaggerating your description of your emotional response? if this happens constantly and interferes with your functioning then it's a problem. if not, then stop worrying about it and turn your attention to something else.

have you ever been mugged or anything like that?

it might be an extension of you feeling that your different and therefore somehow judged as inferior to others. need more info.

"Rather than recognise that people have thoughts about each other in mostly benign ways, the SASC is often highly concerned about ANY thoughts another person is having, even if the SASC logically understands that he or she also routinely has small thoughts about others when around people."

It's not quite that extreme for me (I can tolerate it once I get my mind off of it), but I totally understand the feeling. When I'm eating somewhere public I always avoid sitting at an open table where people will be walking by immediately behind me. Back to the wall or secluded near a window or corner is the most comfortable. It's almost like a kind of primal animal instinct to feel uncomfortable with "exposure". Cold drafts in the middle of a room also bother me.

I have social anxiety and my big thing is that I don't like people sneaking up behind me. When my dog was first fully grown I used to yell at him (he weighs about 100lb) because I would hear him walk up behind me when I'm working at my desk & I thought he was a person. I also think that my insomnia is worse because of this because I was forced to move my bed to a spot in my room where the door is right next/behind me & I seem to be sleeping way less. (I used to have the bed from where I could see the door.).

As a computer technician, a newly created position at my company, I don't have my own designated work area (yet); hopefully I will get a cubicle, office, or workshop soon.

I work in an open area at my workplace near the photographers and special publications editors (I work at a newspaper). I hate it because I sit all the way in the front of my area, and everyone else in my immediate area sits behind me. My boss's office is right next to my desk, and he has a window with no blinds.

Between my boss and all the people behind me, I feel a constant piercing glare on me for about 8 hours out of the day. When I get a chance, I escape to the server room, to the IT cage in the basement, or to a vacant cubicle that has a bunch of remote desktop PCs in it (which is a waste of a cubicle if you ask me; why can't that be my cubicle?!).

If I am "off my game" I cannot cope with the irrational thoughts. My social anxiety gets the best of me and I can't even do my job. Sometimes, while I am in the server room I go behind the server rack and cry. Sometimes I just let it out, and other times I force it. It's almost the same feeling as purging after eating too much. At the time it feels like it will help, but it never really does. It usually only makes me feel worse; I get paranoid that everyone knows I just got done crying, and then my anxiety worsens.

Sometimes, I just don't know what to do. When I am well-organized and following a good routine, I can turn the burning stares down from a blue-hot flame to a small pilot light; and I can focus on doing my job.

However, ever since I let other people ruin my routine over the Christmas holiday, I have been unable to get back into a routine. My whole life feels like chaos; and when I come to work the only thing on my mind is how to get back on track. Every week I start to get back on track by Wednesday, but then my fiance ruins it by screwing up my schedule on the weekend.

He works at a stupid bank that is open 7 days a week; so sometimes he works weekends and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he works until 5:30 and sometimes he works until 8:30, depending on how many accounts they are behind this month. Hell, sometimes he comes home at 2:30 saying, "We were overstaffed today."

I never know what to expect, and it ruins every baby-step of progress I made during the previous week; and then on Monday I start all over again.

I know I have gotten off topic, but it is where my thought process has led me.

My point is, I guess, that the stares do not burn as much if I stick with my routine. When I stick to my routine, I can more easily and calmly tell myself that they are not really staring at me; and if they are...well then, they are just being rude.

Maybe this will be true for others also.