My biggest barrier is probably that I do not respond to emotions the way that most other people do. I do not have a handle on my emotions, even though I am a very reasonable and objective person, because I do not know what they are most of the time. This results in kicking holes in walls and doors when plans that were set, change. It results in trying very hard to articulate if something is wrong, but not always being able to get the words out right. It results in miscommunication, not from lack of trying, but from lack of ability sometimes. And when I start stuttering or stop talking, the guy I am with (or at least the last guy I was with) just figures that it's not important.
Another problem is that I am very strange about touching. I dated a guy on the internet once and when he came to visit me, he tried to be very intimate with me in a physical way almost immediately (as in I asked him where his pants went and if he could please put them back on... let's at least hug and kiss first, pal). We had a good relationship in the mental and even emotional departments (I am a better writer than speaker most of the time), but I had never touched him before. He didn't understand that I had to take that part slow because I have problems with touch. Yet the people I want to touch me-- I actually crave that touch. Even if it's just a friend I can hug.
I guess the last barrier is sort of what other people have been saying-- I am me. Yes, I am different. I am odd and can come across "the wrong way" (whatever that way is). I am guilty of being more interested in things than people sometimes (spinning things, ticking things, shiny things, water flowing or waves lapping at the shore) and that can make me seem uninterested. I do not dress in a provocative fashion and I am not the kind of woman that a guy looks at and thinks "I want to date her!". I am the kind of woman that guys look at and either try to rape (because I've naive... this has been attempted) or just want to be friends with. I don't know why.
The one thing I don't struggle with too much is the overlapping interests thing. My biggest obsession is knowledge as a whole. I want to know everything about everything, therefore I am interested in just about anything. I do have my "pet" interests, however and there are some things I am just not interested in.
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"I don't get the facts wrong! It's everything else I screw up!"
-Flynn Carson ("The Librarian")