Do You Feel Agitated When People Walk Behind You???

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Okay, I recently did the "Aspie Quiz", and this was one of the questions on it- (or something like this, I´m sorry if I can´t remember the exact wording). Anyway....I notice that I feel very uncomfortable when people walk close behind me, especially if I can hear them walking or talking loudly. It disturbs me enough that I always move out of the way, and let them pass me. Somehow, it doesn´t bother me so much when they´re in front.

Does this have anything to do with Asperger´s Syndrome- does anyone know? Or can anyone else relate? (Or am I just strange this way?)

Just curious....

If they're close behind me or seem to be following me, then, yes, it bothers me.

However, it also bothers me if they're in front of me and walking too slow.

Uh don't lot of people feel this way? It's called personal space. If you get too close to someone, they feel uncomfortable.

I feel agitated and worried when people are out or just off to the side of my field of vision.

This field of vision is very narrow when I wearing glasses (I'm very short sighted).
It's like watching very a narrow screen tv. This means people have to stand directly in front of me before my brain can register their presence properly.

Anyone approaching from behind me or to the side that I can hear and not see, but am not prepared for unnerves me. This is probably why I seem more nervous when wearing glasses.

When I'm wearing contact lenses I do not get so jumpy because my field of vision is a much wider cone. I can see out of the corners of my eyes. I feel more relaxed because I can see more of what's going on around me and can prepare for it.

yeah...though I tend to break right, and fall behind them, if I can.

Yes, I can relate. Is consistent with Asperger's. AS has associations with noise sensitivity, social anxiety, issues with touch and personal boundaries etc.

No I don't fel comfortable with someone walking too close behind me. I also hate walking someone who is walking too slow.

Yes. They bug me about that at work, if they're behind me I'm always looking to see where they are. When walking with someone, I perfer to be even or about a 1/2 step behind them.

I thought I ws just paranoid.... maybe not.

Behind the scenes topic

I have always felt uncomfortable with this, and i have no idea whey others walk behind. If I end up behind someone, I run ahead and then revert to my former pace.

Very creepy for someone to walk behind.

YES!

I can not have anyone walk behind me. If this happens, I stop and move to the side so they can walk before me. I can't be the first to walk in a door. I get more anxious if anyone is behind me in a room. I remember I'd always have trouble in school doing my work, and the teachers just thought I was being lazy and they'd move me to the front of the room-- which was absolutely horrible on me. -shivers- It's annoying.

It depends on the environment to some degree, and where I am and what I am doing.

In a social situation I will be the guy leaning against a wall so that people will not be walking behind me. I will not be in the center of the room except to move to another area where I will resume being with my back against the wall. Hit the buffet table and dash to a wall, that sort of thing.

When I am walking to a destination people behind me are less of an issue. I have long legs and can walk faster than most, so if someone is too close behind me, I just increase my stride and my pace for a bit and give myself some extra buffer.

Eating out I much prefer a booth that is in a back corner so there is a wall behind me. Failing that, having another booth behind me at least means that the people are sitting and not walking behind me. Least preferable is being seated in an ordinary chair at a table in the middle of the room, with my back to a walking area. And if it is a very noisy place it makes it even worse. It doesn't take long for the combination of people walking close to me and the multitude of conversations and noise to way over-stimulate me.

no. I just get totally angry when people invade my space from ANY ANGLE. and yet i am known to invade others unintentionally at times.

so it goes beyond agitation to anger. oh well.

Last edited by millie on 03 Jan 2009, 11:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have been known to flag people to move ahead of me when they are following close behind too - it just makes me nervous to hear them breathing, talking, shuffling their feet, etc. I don't like people walking too slowly either, because it means I have to pass, and then I have to walk just a little faster so I don't have them right on my heels (and more often than not, when I breeze past them, they do suddenly pick up the pace... )

I failed an exam question once because the professor decided to stop right behind me to see what I was writing. He also was absent-mindedly playing with a ruler, smacking it into his hand - he was 6' 5" and it was, in retrospect, less standing behind me, and more looming behind me ominously. The information I had carefully studied just drained out of my head, and I never really got my rhythm back on that exam because I was upset over that one stupid question . I still can't stand people standing behind me like that, it is distressing. I really have to grit my teeth when one of my bosses does that to me at work - more often than not, all my typing skills and password memory just leave me. Stand beside me, slightly in front of me - fine, just don't hide in the shadows...

This is exactly what I do as well. If someone is walking behind me, I will either speed up to get where I'm going, or move so they go in front of me. This also applies to driving. I purposely wait for spaces in traffic so that I am last in a series of cars. I detest having anyone behind me in all circumstances. When they are, I feel anxious, irritated, angry, and uncomfortable like I want to jump out of my skin.

I also remember this question when I took the aspie quiz. I recall how much it resonated with me.
I thought, "GOD, YES! I CAN"T STAND THAT!! !!"

Good topic

I get nervous when people walk behind me.

To exsplain, I kind of think of it as being a horse. Horses, when running away from a preditor, tend not to want to be at the very front or the very back of the herd -potentialy the middle where it's harder to be picked off.

If someone's walking behind me, I can't see them and feel like someone's chasing me.

I don't like it.

I do, but I've always chalked it up to a mild case of PTSD.