Dantac wrote:
please define 'confidence' because its quite vague.
I know I'm confident in the sense that I dont have body issues or phobias or drama or trauma... its just that small talk is not something that is natural to me. When I try to do it ...its feels so fake and manipulative and un-natural to me. On top of that the 'mind blank' of small talk makes it worse. I think thats what screws me over.
Confident is, I guess, vague. There are also different kinds of confidence, as some people appear confident when they aren't really all the secure inside, and others are highly self-secure but unable to project confidence.
In the world of dating, I would suggest it is appearing confident that matters. At first, at least. Long run it is kind of nice to find a few cracks in the veneer of the guy you are falling for (to me, anyway; different strokes for different folks).
If you hate small talk, I think the "confident" way to do that is to get the quick introductions out of the way, and then state that you don't enjoy small talk, but would be perfectly comfortable delving deep into any topic of her choosing. Although if you use the word any, be prepared for ANY. If that isn't the case, then try some leading questions to find a topic you both might enjoy.
If someone isn't willing to play along with that, they probably aren't right for you anyway, so in a way you've just created your own natural filter.
Is that helpful at all?
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Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).