how many of us suffer from social phobias too?
If you don't have an aversion to this socialness, what are you?
Moppy, are you suggesting that anyone with AS must have a social phobia? I'd agree that AS leads to a very high rate of social phobia(s), but I'm not sure that the absence of a social phobia should call the AS dx into question.
AS is often confused with social phobia because social anxiety disorder is often co-morbid with AS. The right definition of AS is lack of social skills, or social retardation. I've seen a lot of people thinking they had AS just because they had social phobia.
Social phobia is also easier to treat, and there's a possibility it can disappear. AS will remain forever.
To conclude, no one has ever said that everyone with AS must have social phobia too to have AS.
Yes, I always have. I have a huge fear of being in the public eye. I feel like anytime I'm around people they are my audience and I must behave appropriate to expectations; from what I'm wearing to where my hands are, to my facial expressions.
Hell, even this post gives me a panic attack. Any time I post I feel like I will be judged for it. Makes it very difficult to interact with anyone, anywhere.
LtlPinkCoupe
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I was always a shy and timid person, but I believe my social phobia started to rear its ugly head when my mom started taking me to all these therapists and social skills groups. Each of these groups seemed to have this thinly veiled message of, "No one in the real world is going to like you for who you really are, and it's our job to make you acceptable to others. It may work for some of you, for the rest of you, not."
...I think this really is an awful thing to tell a child, but regardless of how awful it was, that was the message I came away with, and I'm convinced it played a huge role in my social phobia today. No one's going to like the real me, so I mostly just hide.
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I wish Sterling Holloway narrated my life.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!" "Life isn't fair, Calvin." "I know, but why isn't it ever unfair in MY favor?" ~ from Calvin and Hobbes
In the past two years I have been diagnosed with social phobia with avoidant traits, as well as found out I have NVLD and maybe mild AS. From my perspective I like people, but just do not feel comfortable interacting with more than one or two people at a time. This may partly explain why work meetings are often difficult for me and going to a large party of friends and/or co-workers. If I am strongly scrutinized and criticized regarding my lack of social skills by say a person in higher authority (supervisor or professor, etc) I then retreat even more and become even more apprehensive to socialize. If I feel fairly accepted and comfortable with a small group of friends or co-workers then I am ok hanging out with them. I am also always pretty uncomfortable at work and currently I work for a large organization that employs a large amount of people so I am looking forward to changing jobs soon.
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Tyri0n
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The more I grow out of my autistic symptoms, the worse my social anxiety gets. I regressed as a young child and my autism peaked at age 5; since then, I've had three great leaps forward in development. The first occurred around age 6. Then, around age 12, and the final one occurred around age 20. Each time, my social anxiety got temporarily worse. I may be in the middle of another big leap forward because I've noticed my social anxiety spiking again.
If you don't have an aversion to this socialness, what are you?
Moppy, are you suggesting that anyone with AS must have a social phobia? I'd agree that AS leads to a very high rate of social phobia(s), but I'm not sure that the absence of a social phobia should call the AS dx into question.
No. I'm just saying I'm pretty sure having an aversion to general social situations is a trait of AS.
I've had social phobia since I was 8 till present. I have accepted that I will probably have it for the rest of my life unless I get old and retired and I stay home all the time. Its such a huge part of me. I can't help the social phobia, its very different then typical NTs so its hard to relate. I go spastically between have fears over really basic things to doing things completely inappropriate that most NTs would never do. And then I have this extreme awareness that I'm always socially stumbling or extremely quiet. I can put on a socially appropriate face in high stakes situations (such as interviews, meetings, and presentations) for only for brief periods however.
I thought that I suffered from social fear, but finally my distress in situations is mainly to being overloaded.
When I thought initially I had social fear I thought that my discomfort going to a supermarket was because af having social fear.
But in fact I am not formulating social related thoughts being in a supermarket.
I am having an overload inducing a fear-response due to visual overload because of the many colors and shapes, auditive overload, overload from seeing all the movement of people and hearing the voices, and steps and the noise, when they put an item into their trolley etc, but this fear-response I get is not socially related as the criteria state a "persistent, intense, chronic fear of being judged by others and of being embarrassed or humiliated by one's own actions".
I cannot place myself into a strange mind judging me.
What gives me distress in social situations is that there is no script for it and people are unpredictable for me and it takes a lot of effort decoding.
I do fear people who hurted me (physically).
I do fear people, who speak too hard and too much and do too many gestures when speaking, but this might be due to overload.
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English is not my native language, so I will very likely do mistakes in writing or understanding. My edits are due to corrections of mistakes, which I sometimes recognize just after submitting a text.
I really feel strange here at the moment.
On this question with social phobia most voted "yes" on the last migrene question it is the same. I was really surprised. I voted "no" every time. So I ask myself:
1) Are mostly ppl with those disorders read this thread?
2) Or are really most autistics social phobic (and in the other thread have migrene)?
3) If this is the case do I have a bit a diff. set of problems than most autistics?
I can't really figure it out and I'm also not sure if most here have "just" some social phobia but wouldn't meet the criteria for social anxiaty disorder or what's going on actually?
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"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen
If you don't have an aversion to this socialness, what are you?
Moppy, are you suggesting that anyone with AS must have a social phobia? I'd agree that AS leads to a very high rate of social phobia(s), but I'm not sure that the absence of a social phobia should call the AS dx into question.
No. I'm just saying I'm pretty sure having an aversion to general social situations is a trait of AS.
Aversion to social situations it's not a specific trait of AS, neither of social phobia.
I have aversion to social situations just if it's about being in a crowd (because people make so much noise), or when I must stay in a place I don't like/with someone I don't like. But I can like talking with people I like (though I like just very few people), though it can seem I don't because I lack social skills, so I can't really make a well-made and coherent discussion, and I've been told from people that they thought I didn't like talking with them.
But, there can even be people with AS that are very willing to socialize, though they can't due to the lack of social skills. And sure, if people costantly tell you you're doing the wrong thing in a social contest, you'll end up hating social situations, and people who tell you you're doing always the wrong thing.
People with social phobia tend to dislike social situations because they fear them, they cause too much stress, and they'll probably end up hating them, too.
I have symptoms that mimic social phobia, but are actually sensory and processing-related. It's more like social aversion than social phobia, though. If social anxiety and social phobia are used interchangeably, then that's what my symptoms are.
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Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
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