My eyes hurt when I try to look at others' eyes.

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Not sure if this is normal but it usually happens to me.

Whenever I talk to somebody else, I try to look at his/her eyes while talking because I was always told it is what is usually done. But I simply cannot. My eyes hurt and I must close them, look down, look elsewhere, do anything.

Please tell me if you experience anything similar and if this makes any sense.

Yes, this is very common among those with ASD. When we look directly into other peoples' eyes, something just feels wrong.

I can force myself to do it, but then I won't be able to pay any attention to what the person is saying because all my attention is on maintaining eye contact.

I actually didn't realise that this wasn't the case for everyone until about a year ago when I was talking to my doctor about the possibility that I might have ASD, and he told me that I was showing some signs of it such as not making eye contact with him (he referred me to a psychologist). It was only then that I realised that other people didn't have difficulties making eye contact.

It is the same for me. It's normal for a person who has autism.

Even photos of people where they're looking straight at the camera can be like that for me. If I'm reading a newspaper, I quite often fold the page or hold my hand over pictures of people "staring out of the page" because it distracts me from reading fluently.

I think it's also a mistake to assume that all eye contact issues have the same cause. For some people, it might be lack of awareness that it's expected (seems to be what most non-autistics assume); but it can also be because listening and watching at the same time is "too much information", because it is just unnerving like a phobia, because other visible things distract us too easily, or because having something on our mind makes us forget our "social learning" temporarily. For me, it's a mix of it feeling creepy and giving me too much information to process.

This is quite normal for an autistic person.
If you want to look like you are making eye contact but still be comfortable, try looking at the bridge of the nose.

Based on your responses, it looks like the whole picture makes sense to me. However I am still so reluctant to look at myself in the mirror and tell myself "you are autistic". Not sure why.

Also, I feel so ashamed whenever I look at myself at the mirror. I feel shame, anger, disgust. This is why I don't like to take pictures and I do what I can to hide myself in such moments.

Yes, I get that too.
I feel like I'm stressing my eyes because I have to do it consciously, whereas it's probably a completely unconscious function for non-autistic people.
It doesn't feel natural at all.

My coach when I was younger told me to practice looking into my own eyes in the mirror and it seemed to have helped. I can hold eye contact for a little longer now

i got into trouble at work because apparently i dont make enough eye contact with costumers and when people talk to me. i was accused of being in 'lala land' whatever. i find it really stressful to interact with so many people over 8 hr straight and it also strains my eyes because i have to make an effort.

the day after work I'm usually bed ridden and have no motivation to go outside it's really unhelpful because there are tons of things i need to do but I'm too mentally tired