What kinds of things do you do to avoid people?

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I once went around wearing earbuds even though there was no music playing. It kept most people from talking to me, which was good because if I notice someone talking to me I literally can't ignore them; I'm hardwired that way from years of my parents scolding me for ignoring people talking to me.

I once walked into a store, gathered all my items, and then left when I realized that there was no self-checkout.

I'll push my homework until someone texts me so that I can say that I'm doing homework and can't talk. Or I just don't reply for a couple days, and repeat until they decide it's not worth it to try to talk to me (which backfired because I have to ignore either everyone or no one and that led to me ignoring someone I actually like talking to because I couldn't handle talking to someone else too)

I listen to music through earbuds almost constantly.

Find a place with no people or just make comments about how much I hate people until people take the hint to leave me alone

Whip out my cynicism to its fullest extent (that's a turn-off for most people)

Were you there at the time? I've never had a panic attack but if I were ever to have one, it would be that kind of situation that would trigger it. A heart attack might have been on the cards too.

Bwahahaha!

Yep, they knocked first but I was just kind of 'stuck' and huddled in the corner and couldn't answer the door.

Another time I failed to answer the door in my apartment, and the 'visitor' took that to mean nobody was home, and proceeded to break in through the sliding glass door to steal my (nonexistent) stuff. I can't win...

Love the Kleenex strategy though, that's brilliant!

I stay home for weeks on end.
I have my food / clothes / household goods ordered online and delivered
If I have an appointment I take a cab there and back.
If I have to go to town, I take a cab there and back.
I have a call screener on my home phone and dont answer unknown numbers on my mobile.
Sometimes when I have to have something fixed in the house and cant face it, it can go unfixed for a
few weeks till i get my head around it.
If I can I have someone else answer the door.
Sometimes my neighbour will knock on me if she is having something delivered and won't be in, but I don't
mind as she is always in a hurry.
My son goes out mon - frid with carers who pick him up and drop him off at the door, and I always feel better
when my husband does it, even though they are all friendly and I can have a joke with them, but worry my mask might slip and they will see the weird me .
Strangely I am not a nervous type of person and I am more than capable of appearing chatty and friendly and funny, but I dont have the energy to keep it going any length of time.

It is really something to me reading through these replies, it is good to know I am not alone and there are others out there who feel as I do. For the past year or so now I've been able to do my job from home and make my own schedule, lately I've cut it down to where I really only have to go out for groceries and have been making a point to do my shopping in one trip. I used to treat myself to lunch but that meant going out to a different restaurant every day so recently I've been getting creative and just cooking my own lunch along with my other meals. The phone...every time it rings my heart rate goes up so I've been setting it and keeping it on the "do not disturb" setting where only select contacts can reach me. When I do venture out and have to interact with the rest of the world, I can't describe how good it feels to get home and turn the key in my lock as I shut the door behind me.

Argh, phones. I sympathize so much with all these phone woes.

I found a psychologist that takes my insurance, so I've been trying to make an appointment. Does not allow appointments by email or web page. I have to call. I have to call during standard business hours, which means in my car on my lunch break. So I spend several minutes psyching myself up for it. Plan what I'm going to say. Calming stims. Make sure I have pen and paper handy. Make sure the pen works. Try to get it balanced on my knee where I can write on it easily. Is the air conditioner too loud. I don't know how long this phone call is going to take; maybe I should go inside and use the bathroom first? Turn the radio off. Turn on the speaker phone. Maybe the speaker phone will cause too much background noise and they'll have a harder time hearing me. Turn off the speaker phone. Deep breathes. Where's that piece of paper with the number written on it? Check that I typed it in right.

And then they don't answer.

It tells me to leave a message and they'll call me back. Phone anxiety aside, my job makes it so I'm not allowed to receive phone calls during business hours!

So I hang up without leaving a message, which means I have to repeat the whole process another time.

I'm trying to see this guy for ADHD/autism executive dysfunction, but it seems he also treats depression and stuff. If I had untreated depression and was trying to make an appointment for that reason, I'd probably have some kind of self-harm meltdown over this.

That kind of procrastination is exactly what I do when I make phone calls. And I hate it when no one answers the phone - but at the same time, I'm kind of relieved as well, but not entirely because I know I'll still have to make the call (or that they will call me back if I leave a message).

I'm doing my 'Honours' year at uni this year, which is pretty much expected to be intense and stressful. I went to the orientation session a few days ago. The Honours coordinator for my topic area is on another campus. She said to us that if we needed to vent or talk to someone, we could call her or set up a Skype session. No thanks, that would only magnify my stress! It amazes me that some other people make phone calls so easily that it doesn't even occur to them that others might have difficulty.

I used to avoid picking up phone calls, and even replying people messages. I avoid human presence in all forms.

But I am better now as I try to reply messages without too much delay .. To me that's 1-2 hours later. Last time can be half a day or a day.

I answer calls now more confidently and more friendly , wait for pauses before talking.

I avoid most social events by saying I am not feeling well, I have clashing appts. But now I attend a few making sure I feel alright and not too depressed or anxious

Other than that I enjoy going out even if I am alone to do grocery, shop , to library , to cafe and read a book. Makes me feel pretty relax.

About been anti social , I realized about pretending or as a fact really listening to music. Or faking listening to music but eavesdropping in other conversation.

Body language says a lot about the person and I observed that if I am in earphone mode it probably says I am in anti social mode especially in the gym. But if I am not wearing earphone, one seems to be a bit more open in terms of approachability. Smile abit act friendly and people start to do small chats to you.

I wear sunglasses to avoid eye contact (also helps with light senestivity). If I hear people talking outside a room I'm in, I'll wait till it's quiet to go out. I used to listen to music but I've been reading instead lately. Reading is great because I can protend I'm concentrating instead of ignoring them. I ignore phone messages for days. My Mum got upset with me the other day because I hadn't updated my status about my sons health in 2 days or called her (I'm really bad at that). My friends get upset when I ignore there Facebook messages. I've gotten better though at Facebook, since more people get paranoid when I haven't updated. Thank goodness I don't have to update personally to them all! I update them on Facebook about my son's condition, as he is in hospital for chd. I'm already getting burn out from Facebook and I didn't think that was possible. Who knew that Facebook could give you social burn out? I thought it would solve my problem rather than add to it. I hate being social, so tiring. I need a cave.

I normally go to the college's LRC and just sit by myself with no-one beside me, people are in there but I just pretend they're not, sometimes I hate people, I'll get stressed out by them and I just want to be alone.

I do that one.



I do that one too.

Ashariel said, "One time in college I avoided people for so long, the campus police broke down my door. That kinda sucked."

This happened to me too. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for a work day, so I planned to use half of a sick day. The appointment would not take long, but my transitioning skills are horrible and it was my sick day to use.

The week before, I informed my boss that I had a doctor's appointment and that I would be out of the office for the afternoon. I also put it on my work calendar which any of my co-workers could view. Then, I turned off my phone so that it would not interrupt my appointment and so that I could relax.

A few hours later, when I turned my phone back on, I found several messages from work... and the police! The first message was just a work-related question (that's fine). When I had not called back (on my time off), and since "no one had seen me in three days" (it was Monday), they called the police and reported me as a missing person (what?!).

This about sums it up.

Lissa1212, that's brilliant.