What are your nervous/socially anxious habits?

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Mine: fidgeting, stuttering, talking too loud or forceful, looking away, shaking my head, looking down, stiffness, pretending to be fascinated with something someone else was aying, fake giggling, fake smiling, faked attentiveness, pretending to ber fscinated with my fingernails, pretending to look around, pretending to be fascinated by something nearby, fiddling with hair, pretendign to go through stuff, shifting papers, pretending to be reading something important, pretending to be absorbed in my work/task, probably others!

I keep looking at a clock or watch or ill ignore everybody and start performing a task (like on friday, my friend had some dude over I did not know, i said hello and instead of chillin out having a beer with the new guy I went outside, unloaded a small stack of wood from my car and proceeded to pile it up outside near our firepit. My friend was mad that I was so 'rude' but also understands that, as pretty much my best friend, that I am on the spectrum (and his mom knows alot about people on the spectrum, so I came clean to them only as friends) and may have wanted to just be outside rather then sit and talk.

I walk in a very stiff manner and bite my lower lip.

I fidget with my clothes and crack my knuckles when I'm anxious.

I frown, and peer into the distance, as if trying to make something out. I hum under my breath. I tap my fingers or bite my nails. I pretend to talk on my cell phone to avoid conversation.

I walk oddly too, and I frown and grimace(for some reason, i've been doing it a lot more these last few days...not good), sometimes smile oddly when somebody's talking to me, so it looks like i'm laughing at them or something. When I watch like a soap opera, I mimic the characters' facial expressions without realizing it. I have a bad tendancy to stare at people. When I was at school i used to pretend to yawn( I read somewhere recently that yawning is a sign of aggression among some animals, because they bear their teeth, and I wonder whether that could have been the reason i did it).

I never know what to do with my hands. Walking round town it's easy, I just keep them in my pockets, but in a conversation they always seem to get in the way.

Ed Almos

I tend to become a chameleon or mimic. I get nervous around people I don't know, so I'll watch them and try to mimic their vocal inflection, mannerisms, etc. But sometimes, I have been known to stare or get really quiet as well. I also stretch a lot.

Foot tapping, leg shaking, hand clasping and fiddling about with my hands... odd eye contact - when not confident small or no eye contact... lots of or very little smiling... strange voicing... lol

I have a lovely choice between talking loudly and excessively and giggling hystreically, I usually choose to stay silent.

I'm usually fidgeting with something in my hands. A pen, a ball, a paperclip, whatever. I'm well known at work for bringing a green sqishy ball to meetings, and playing catch with myself in the corner.

I'm probably a compulsive foot tapper/leg jiggler.

I studder and particulalry stammer quite a bit when my mind and mouth get too far out of synch.

My worst nervous habbit is laughing inappropriately for lack of knowing what the proper response is. I think certain people in my life have taken to disliking them because I laughed when they were trying to share bad or sad news with me. Thank god for online forums, where I tend not to do that so much.

Good fortune,

- Icarus laughs at funerals...

i avoid eye contact by looking straight past the person i am talking to, play with my fingers or pick my nails, if there are any batterys near me i fiddle with them & will roll them across my face & quite often resort to my normal stims of rocking & digging my finger nails into the back of my hand. also if there is music on i sing along, i have a good memory for lyrics & this familiarity calms me down too. i get odd looks & comments sometimes but hey, i dont care much!

i have a really hard time with eye-contact.. and sometimes it's a little awkward because i'll look away at something and the person will think i'm not interested in what they're saying, or not listening, and i'm always afraid they'll be offended, but i can't help it. i just can't keep eye-contact. (killer in intro to public speaking class...) also, i get panic attacks when i'm suddenly shoved into a situation.. like this one time, when i was shopping with my sister and her friend, and while my sister was in the bathroom, her friend and i were in the checkout line. then her friend decided suddenly to exchange an item and, telling me to wait by the cart, took off with the item before it could even register that i'd been left alone in the checkout line with no money. when it did register, i began to have a panic attack and when my sister showed up, i was near tears. needless to say, she was a bit unhappy with her friend. lol. a lot of times, when i'm nervous, i bite my nails or chew on my knuckles. when i'm highly stressed, i dig my nails into my arms and make them bleed. i also stutter sometimes, and have a hard time annunciating my words. i'm also terrified of calling people on the phone or talking to people i consider in positions of authority.. even fast food workers.. lol. i have a hard time ordering. the worst part, i think, is that my dad has this "get over it" attitude.. like forcing me into those situations will eventually make me "all better" or something.. i swear, i've had more panic attacks from him trying to "cure" me than from anything else. oie.. i'm starting to get off topic.. hmm.. what else do i do when i'm nervous?? .. i fiddle with my shirt, tie, or hair... i scratch my head a lot. there are probably others, too... but that's all i can think of...

wow the eye contact and fidgeting the silence and I put on my IPOD and listen to others but have my music to distract me as well. one foot there and one foot elswhere!

For some reason I often break into a "James Brown" dance, which bewilders the s**t out of people. I can do this anywhere.