yournamehere wrote:
I tried it again yesteday. this women at the store gave me some sales pitch. she looked at me, so I looked into her eyes. really for no reason. I could define her blue eyes soo well, I could probably paint them. I guess I want to get to the bottom of this eye contact thing that seems to be soo important. everything seemed kind of blank for that brief moment. I had the feeling of knocking on her forhead, and asking if anything was in there. she didn't want to look into my eyes after that. I tried. she acted as if she felt violated in some way. I can look, but only for a brief moment. after that moment, things seem a little creepy. when I look into someones eyes that I have known for a long time ( wich I rarely ever do), they almost always ask me "whats wrong", or "are you o.k.". I get the feeling that I have been hiding the way that I am soo well, and for soo long, that they really don't understand me. never really realized until pritty recently that I don't do the eye contact thing. I have more like a wandering eye. when people talk to me, I kind of move my head. look at them, and look away. is this normal? when people say you make eye contact, does it mean your supposed to stare???
No, staring can creep NTs out even more than no eye contact can. You got it right; you're supposed to glance away, make eye contact for a few seconds, look away again, and back and forth. It helps to practise by getting someone else to read to you, then looking at them every time they come to a pause or the end of a sentence, then try it with your own words. It also helps if you glance back every time you want to emphasize a point. I am really hopeless at eye contact. When talking to people, I wind up staring at the floor, the ceiling, the lamp on the other side of the room, basically anything but the other person. When listening, I watch peoples' mouths, but apparently they can tell when you do that, though I've never had anyone comment on it. I have had a few mentions of my inability to look at people while speaking though. According to my dad, it makes people uncomfortable.
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"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
Thanks to Olympiadis for my fantastic avatar!