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Fab
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

Joined: 16 Jul 2016
Gender: Male
Posts: 1
Location: Germany

16 Jul 2016, 9:58 am

Hi,

First of all, thank you so much for this website, the great article and the very dynamic forum.
I'm new on this forum, I have been diagnosed not long ago with Asperger (I'm 37) and I would like to know it some people are sharing the same struggles than me. One for example, that I not seen mentioned in my researches about asperger.
When I am in a corridor, and someone (I know or not) is coming from the other direction, I start to increasingly freak out as the person gets closer. My mind starts shouting questions and a increasing pace.
What's part of the day is it? Should I said good morning, good evening? How close am I with this person? Should I say hi, be more formal, should I just nod?
Is there any background with this person? birthday, anything they told me before? Am I expected to ask a question about this?
And this questioning increases as the person get closer and closer, and my anxiety increases accordingly, until the climax when the distance is socially accepted that people interact with each others...
... And when comes this time, I usually throw my prepared plans overboard and say something completely different and inappropriate with the situation.
It ranges between corssing the booss of my company to crossing my wife between the bedroom and the bathroom corridor.

Are other people on the spectrum having this sort of feeling as well?



AnaHitori
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Apr 2016
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Posts: 509
Location: The Internet

16 Jul 2016, 12:10 pm

Personally I just avoid looking at them. They might think you just don't see them or are distracted with your own thoughts.


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259
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

Joined: 26 Feb 2016
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 27

16 Jul 2016, 12:55 pm

oh god, similar issues here. I don't feel as weirded out when it's someone I don't like or barely know or whose opinion I don't care about, but if it's someone I kind-of-know-but-not-really-friends-with and whose opinion I for some reason care about, I don't know how to act. I might say hello, but after that what? Do I make chit chat? What if I don't have anything to base the chit chat on? And if not, where do I look? I've settled with pretending to be in so much hurry or so distracted I can't even make small talk, but I'm pretty sure after a while no one's buying it.

I also don't like the tension as that person gets closer, I think because it's obvious that I've seen them coming and have had the time to decide how to act. It's so much easier when the person just pops out of a door when I'm walking down the hallway, in that case I'd say hello without even thinking and go on my own way.