People seem to cough around me..

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I'd describe myself as introverted albeit friendly, one of the things I notice is people cough or itch when they detect my presence.
Have you guys ever experienced this? It feels like hostility.. and I tell my parents and they tell me it's OCD and paranoia. I'm 100% sure, though, people are coughing when they see me. I don't know how someone would be able to hallucinate this! (and i'm not otherwise psychotic or schizophrenic!)

Last edited by kitchy21 on 14 Mar 2011, 6:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sounds like paranoia to me but it could be that you have an odor problem. Double check your hygiene rituals. If you are sure you are well maintained then I'd say you are just being paranoid.

The thing about paranoia is that it feels real. Try to see through it.

If they're a group of people that know each other, it could be like a way of communicating. People are sneaky. My friend had her most if not whole Spanish class cheating off of her one year and she had no idea until someone informed her. They never once got caught because she did averagely, as did they. Just sayin', people are sneaks. They could be doing that, or not.

Yes. They cough, sniff, clear throats or make other idiotic, unnecessary sounds. It doesn't matter if they see me or not. It doesn't matter if I'm in a different room or on a different floor. They will still cough because of my presence around the place. There is no doubt about it.
The more I think about it the more they do it. Problem is I can't not think about it. It also happens when I'm feeling something (like: sadness, happiness, fear, anger). I guess it's impossible to stop myself from having emotions, is it?

How do you know that they weren't coughing, sniffing, whatever before you got there, or after you left?

How long has this been going on?

You probably have some magnetism.

Do you sometimes get little electrostratic shoc when you touch some metal?

I completely relate.

Most of the coughs are actually attempts to educate me on how to sit, stand, walk... wear my clothes and whatever. Its maybe an adult form for bullying, as I get signs that I dont fit in. Well bullying is maybe the wrong word, since its rather a prompt to behave. It has an opposite effect though.

Its funny to respond with a long and meaningful caugh. Sometimes I receive some smiles

Some of the coughs are just attempts to ignore me and I also often have people passing me who start whisteling or even singing (silently) as a clear sign that they have never noticed my presence...

Caughing can mean more things, like for example: "you have a problem - not me", or "I dont like you".
Very interesting in deed.

People seem to cough near me on the bus, but I don't think it's because of me. Everywhere I go people cough, it seems that everyone has coughs, or smokes a lot, or just coughs because they seem to want to seek attention without freaking people out. It just happens that they sit near me all the time, but if everybody's always coughing, there is more of a chance of them sitting near me then.

Sotty I discard this post. I was thinking that you were speaking about sneezing.

I can't know if they were doing it before I came in or after I left. I didn't record it...yet
The point is they do this a lot when I'm near and it happens immediately after I feel something, make a sound, talk or move suddenly. These are not natural coughs from people who are ill or something. It's been going on for few years probably, but I fully realized what's going on maybe few months ago. This thing is real. Now I just HAVE TO solve it.



Maybe, but.. I get these signs from little kids also. Some of them cry. So it's not about how I look or how I behave because kids don't care about it.




You cough back? I would rather choke to death than do this. I think words are the best way to communicate.




Yes, they are whistling or singing when passing by. Why would they want to give a sign that they have never noticed your presence? If they want to ignore why they won't just shut up for few seconds until they pass by? Coughs are attempts to ignore? Isn't ignoring about being quiet and focusing on something else? I'm missing something here...

I have observed that occasionally people cough slightly as a warmup to saying something to someone they don't know, perhaps because they fear they won't be loud enough or something. General form: person observes someone has dropped a mitten; "*ahem*(cough) You dropped this." Or as another example, they may think you have moved into their space, like in front of them at a shop by accident ,and they think that by coughing or making a small sound they will alert you to their presence and you will fix the blunder that they perceive has happened once you are aware of their presence.

Huh? Whut? *cough*

First please excuse me my english, I seem to offend everybody I talk to online, so sorry in advance just in case

Well I receive reactions in every form everywhere I go. And I know how to distinguish between a normal caugh and a caugh caused by my presence, like I recognize all other reactions around me.

My presence cuts the universe unharmonically and I have therefore learned how to fake adaption to other movements to get rid of the attention. Thereby I affect peoples natural awareness to get affected by, or at least aware of the same things that I fake being affected by, which deludes their attention towards these things instead, so that its soon off my shoulders.

BUT: I have accepted my role as a source of attention and so I have found my natural way, which is to be outstanding wherever I go. Though with little children and in some situations I spare the people for experiencing an unusual situation -> by becomming a fitting brick into their own pictures, instead of being myself.

Yes I respond to some people and Im having a lot of fun with it. I never make it in a hostile way, I actually create a lot of smiles around me. Well some people are conceited, but thats just funny too.

There are some basic stuff about ignoring people vs. giving people too much attention. Its rude to give a stranger too much attention because they are just "anyone" and more attention can mean they stick out you fancy them. Everywhere I go I see a contest of ignorance because:
attention means SOMETHING = you receive a social position, while being ignored means the opposite.

People assume I attract attention on purpose because I want to be something to them. Presumably this is because Im a woman, as a womans role is to be an attractive object to look at for others, but also Im understood as if I want to be special.

In my spesific case, ignoring me has mostly the following meaning: not wanting to give me the attention that people think I search for.

But actually its a good question why people ignore, because it has a lot of reasons to it. I cant just tell you in two words, and therefore here Ive only scratched the surface by telling you about some basic stuff that applies to myself.

You're ignoring the people who aren't coughing I'm guessing.

Or is the whole bus coughing?

Meaning: its only imagination, people arent reacting to your presence...



Meaning: because if not everybody is caughing because of you, it isnt true that some do...

Sorry for being a mirror.

Yes I have noticed this too. I noticed it many many years ago as being something slightly aggressive, like "I don't agree and your constant differences to the collective way of doing things is really starting to piss me off. Don't be so contrary all the time and people will like you more". Or something to that effect lol. I had been observing peoples tendency to cough "at" me for ages and just watched and tried to figure it out. Then I found myself doing it and I got it! When we are around people we like we "absorb" everything about them. We want them around us and in our personal space. Coughing is like a little aggression and creation of a boundary maybe? It is very much unconscious.

Whistling and singing is just plain ol rude and arrogant. Maybe it's an NT emotional response to thinking that we are not interested in them.