NTs going out their way to avoid being ''laughed at''

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Does this annoy anyone else? I don't like being different or laughed at either, but I know some people who would give up their life just to avoid being thought of by a few strangers who they'll never see again.

Last week my friend realised she needed new pillows because the ones she has now had all gone out of shape and were giving her neckache in bed, and she was waking up with a stiff neck, which was interferring with her job. So when I was waiting at the bus stop with her to go shopping together, a conversation went like this:-

Me: I know what - why don't you buy 2 pillows today when we go to the shopping centre?
Friend: No, it's too embarrassing.
Me: What's so embarrassing about buying two pillows?
Friend: I don't want to lug them on the bus because it's too embarrassing and people will laugh if they see me lugging two pillows onto the bus.
Me: Well put them in a bag then.
Friend: No I will still look silly.
Me: So? I see other people dragging big things on the bus and they don't look silly. Nobody really cares or thinks anything.

But my friend was stubborn, and so she slept 4 or 5 more nights with her old pillows what were all out of shape, and she kept on moaning about her neck all week and she took Friday off work to see the doctor. Then she got her boyfriend to run her to the city at the week-end, because apparently it's OK to lug big things around shopping centres but not on buses. So she went all through that instead of just buying the pillows in the week when I said.

I really can't believe people like my friend who would rather put herself through pain just to avoid a situation where she is 5 percent likely to be commented about on public transport. Yes, I know I hate unwanted attention, and I fear humiliation, but I still wouldn't be afraid of carrying big items on a bus. Last time I carried a big item on the bus, I had a good-looking man help me put it up on the racking.

For some people, it may have been drilled into them when they were growing up, that they have to follow convention. It might have been the way their parents lived, and then they just subconsciously copied what they saw at home. Or, it could be that they need a feeling of external approval to feel good about themselves.

In any case, it is probably just excessive self consciousness, and chances are that most strangers who see that person get on the bus with those pillows won't think anything about it at all.

I agree that if you don't know anyone on the bus but happen to take two pillows on board, in a store bag no less, then why on earth should you care about what anyone might think. It's not like you'd be ripping the pillows up and having a pillow fight on the bus... (though strangely, that might attract the admiration of immature people who "think in packs").

When the bus is full and some people have to stand including me I have noticed on occasion that as son as a seat becomes available some will run down the entire length of the bus while I am the last left standing, I do not care because sometimes I like standing.

Do I care what people think of me in a situation that I will never see them again? Hell no.

The opinions of worthless people are just that, worthless ~ Some old dude.

If someone laughs at me, I think...."At least I made someone smile today".

You never know they might have needed the giggle lol

Before I got depressed and turned into a miserable so and so I used to have a whooping sense of humour and could find a lot of things plain old funny, like the time I had a head on collision with a lamp-post in front of a bus queue full of people. Yes, they laughed, but it was funny lol.

No, I took no evasive manoeuvres as I didn't see the lamp-post in the first place! Just barged straight into and thought "what the hell was that" lol. When I got over the initial shock I laughed myself.

Oh and I have lumbered home with all sorts on the bus lol. I don't care as long as I don't turn around too quickly and take someone's eye out with what I am carrying.

I don't think that's really an nt thing, more of a social anxiety thing.

I have Asperger's and at least one anxiety disorder that is yet to be diagnosed and I worry all the time what strangers and other people think. I didn't use to when I was younger, but because of that I ended up bullied, harassed, and treated like a freak of nature. I often worry other people (especially teenagers) think I'm mentally ret*d (like the shrink once believed before she diagnosed me) or psychotic and that I need to be put in a home. And when I see some people (teenagers) nearby laughing I automatically think they're laughing at me, and that they're jerks.

Bullies think they can control other people by laughing at them, and sadly it works a lot of the time.

There are issues more worthy of being self-consious about than carrying pillows.

I noticed a tendency among people too be oversensitive to the possibility of social embarrassment. My guess is that people sensitivities are still geared toward our tribal roots. In the ancient tribes any embarrassment would be known and remembered throughout the whole tribe due to fact that everybody knows everybody else and gossip is as old as human speech(perhaps older).

I would feel like that with two bags of groceries, because people don't normaly bring groceries onto a bus.