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glider18
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19 Apr 2012, 10:46 am

My therapist worked with me on eye contact several years ago. But I still find eye contact as difficult as ever. The technique he taught me on trying to look between the eyes worked a bit, but now it feels very awkward.

How does eye contact feel for me?

It feels like all my personal space is being invaded leaving me completely vulnerable.
It makes me feel very antsy with the onset of anxiety beginning to take hold.
It makes me feel like my confidence in trying to maintain a social connection with someone is being taken away.
It makes me physically want to turn my head to the ground and stare at the floor.
Eye contact feels as uncomfortable as trying to carry a burning barbed wire fence---burning and piercing my brain.


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jetbuilder
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19 Apr 2012, 11:08 am

During a conversation, here's what's going through my head:

"Okay, make eye contact, but don't stare, don't overly avoid contact.
He's now looking straight at me, CRAP. (instantly get uncomfortable and look away)
At Least glance at him every once in a while.
Damn it I don't have anything in my hands to look at and fiddle with.
Okay, try looking at his nose or mouth instead of his eyes.
Oh, that's what he was talking about.... Crap, what was the first thing he said?"


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Feline1982
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19 Apr 2012, 11:52 am

:D jetbuilder has a point :)


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bizboy1
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19 Apr 2012, 12:23 pm

It's uncomfortable and painful!



falonsayswoah
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19 Apr 2012, 2:12 pm

It's just not natural for me to do so. When I do, it makes me really uncomfortable, and I never do it unintentionally. If someone makes eye contact with me I quickly look elsewhere.


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lostmyself
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19 Apr 2012, 2:23 pm

lostgirl1986 wrote:
Holding eye contact on a person for too long makes me nervous and I kind of avert my eyes and then look back. I had a big problem with learning about eye contact when I was a little girl.


This is how it makes me feel too. I sort of started having problem with eye contact when I developed anxieties after PTSD when I was 16.



UnLoser
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19 Apr 2012, 3:55 pm

Eye contact feels fine for me. I'm not bothered in the slightest by it. But I often like to look around, either at my surroundings or at other parts of the person I'm talking to.



Kinme
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19 Apr 2012, 4:18 pm

I usually look below the person's eyes, or if they have pretty eyes, I'll look at them. If it's someone I don't trust or dislike, I feel VERY awkward and can't look at them at all. I can't even look at their face if it's like that.



MindBlind
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19 Apr 2012, 4:18 pm

Uncomfortable. Especially if you are self conscious about it.



Maje
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19 Apr 2012, 4:29 pm

Usually good. I can get annoyed if people avoid eye contact with me.

Though some people stress me by being too obtrusive and thus I avoid them because I feel there is no contact.



SanityTheorist
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15 Jun 2012, 2:08 pm

To my eye contact tends to be related to trust and importance of a matter at hand. Lack of eye contact means that I don't really find the conversation/person very interesting.


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jmnixon95
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15 Jun 2012, 2:43 pm

When I was a child it was really uncomfortable and intense. I'd avoid it with even people I knew really well because it was just unbearable and almost sickening.
Now, though, I've learned to make it with most people. I still find myself having a hard time making it with people I don't know, though. I kind of look everywhere except their eyes.



Nonperson
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15 Jun 2012, 7:27 pm

Uncomfortable and sort of confused, or distracted. There's an exercise in the book "Drawing on the Right side of the Brain" where you have to copy a profile in reverse while thinking of the names of each part of the face, so that you're attempting to do a spatial task while focusing on something verbal. It's meant to be confusing, so you notice the difference between two modes of thinking. To me, looking someone in the eye while attempting to speak or listen feels like that, and makes it difficult to understand what they're saying, or to form coherent sentences myself. I try to get away with faking it whenever I can, because it's difficult enough to carry on a conversation without that. That's even true when I talk to people I know and trust. I will look them in the eyes while not speaking, but to say anything at all complex I prefer to look away.



bizboy1
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15 Jun 2012, 7:31 pm

Painful. It hurts.



Dan_Undiagnosed
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18 Jun 2012, 1:07 am

Like my soul is laid bare to the Eye of Sauron.



Cmurray93
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18 Jun 2012, 1:24 am

Me personal I make eye contact fine my real problem is reading body language