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Do you get anxiety before entering a room with people in it?

Droopy

Founder & Former Admin
V.I.P Member
It could be a classroom, a waiting room at the doctors, a cinema or any room where you know there will be people (doesn't matter how few or many people already in the room).

I sometimes get anxiety when entering a room where I know there will be other people. One example is that I'm late for class and as soon as I open the classroom door - everyone looks up at me. Another example is the waiting room at the doctors as there is always other people in there too - usually coughing and sneezing.
 
i often feel anxious before and during going some where were there are crowds of people like school corridors inbetween lessons :S
 
I get them whenever I'm in meetings and I know there is going to be tons of people in there and for some reason, I just find it rather overwhelming but I don't get them as bad as I used to.
 
Yeah I usually do. If I know that people aren't going to turn around and stare at me when I enter the room, it's a little better, but I anticipate it every time. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't, but it always makes me a bit nervous.
 
I get nervous before entering a building or waiting room. When I'm late for an appointment, most of the time I'll turn around and go back home. I get mad at myself for it because I let it bother me so bad. Me and my boyfriend have been going to a local auction on the weekends and I get really nervous. Once I'm in and settled in a seat I'm ok. But at first I'm always really nervous.
 
Well, I'm anxious about socialising, now. That's a vicious circle, since people were on at me 'not to be anxious' before I really felt anxious about it! So, what's anybody else do about it, if anything?
 
I do have this issue. I do grocery shopping and stuff in the middle of the night, and I won't go to a movie if might have to sit next to someone I don't know. About once a year I go to a concert or the theater or something, and I have to take anxiety medication or have a drink first.
 
Not really. But I do get anxiety when it comes to talking because I am afraid of making myself look stupid or saying the wrong thing. I swear I am getting more and more paranoid as I get older and I maybe have some low self esteem about myself.
 
I generally try not to think about it and just walk in...I find it usually hits me after I'm in the place with a lot of people. There have been a few occasions when I do get so anxious I end up just staying home or something like that, but I have found those are times when I'm already tired or stressed.
 
I feel much better about it if I am armed with my iPhone and, even better, iPad. Even if I am not using either one, if I begin to feel panicky I can at least look at the screen. In the olden days (before electronic devices) I went everywhere armed with a book and/or notebook. Same system but the electronic version seems a bit more discrete (especially the phone).
 
I feel much better about it if I am armed with my iPhone and, even better, iPad. Even if I am not using either one, if I begin to feel panicky I can at least look at the screen. In the olden days (before electronic devices) I went everywhere armed with a book and/or notebook. Same system but the electronic version seems a bit more discrete (especially the phone).

I tend to stare at my screen all the time when I go out. I don't know if it's anxiety... I mostly feel that I just have to have something to do and I end up being neurotic and checking my email, reading things on facebook, stuff like that all the time. 10-15 years ago, I just kept staring at my mp3 player or had a book of sorts around as well.

But I feel that if I can just run around and do my thing without being "stopped" as in.. waiting in a line in a store for example, I don't really have the "I must do something". But I think that's more of an AD(H)D trait. I just need to be kept busy 24/7 otherwise my mind wanders off places and I kinda lose connection to the outside world and ASD kicks in. And while I don't panic over it, I kinda feel that I miss the purpose of being somewhere. I can handle waiting my turn in the store, cause me "losing connection" I really look around like I'm lost and really forgot what I'm doing there.
 
I have been told that most so called normal people feel some of the same. A solution, I have problem coming up with. The only solution is to get there before all the others. That would seriously xxxx up your life though. My advice is do not go there. Make the world conform to your needs, for once!
 
Only if I'm expected to socialize. I don't remember the last time I tried it. :wacko:
 
That is a definite yes!
A few years ago, my boss at the time asked me to come to his birthday party and I did the usual Umm-ing and Ahh-ing and then finally gave in when he said it was important to him and he would be happy if I was there. I showed up at the prescribed time and was mortified to find I was the only other person there from work… I didn’t know anybody! I got a beer from the bar and stowed my backpack under the table where the presents were going to go and then I tried desperately to meld with the wall for all I was worth.
The fact that I was in a bar would have usually been okay but, it was for a planned function and so I didn’t have any rules I could follow, I couldn’t just do what I would do in a normal pub situation as it didn’t seem to fit. So I waited and waited and he finally arrived and he eventually got around to me, I asked him where everybody was and he said they couldn’t come so, of all the people I worked with and only him to talk to? He’s the birthday boy and he’s got to do the rounds.
We all went in to dinner and I didn’t know where to sit because I didn’t know anybody and I couldn’t just sit next to my boss because I am a nobody and he wanted family and friends close so, I stood there clutching my backpack like a little kid on his first day at school. I eventually sat down amid confused stares (who is this guy, why isn’t he sitting, does anybody even know him) and the boss came and sat next to me for about an hour, when dinner arrived I just ate it and then wandered over to the bar to get another drink. After dinner most of the decent people left and what was left was the usual line-up of rowdies and pissheads out for a booze up, now I fit in, simply because they had lowered their weirdo radar and I could walk around without being scrutinized. I went home after another couple of beers.
 
Yes I have the same issues but only if it is something I have never done before. For example the first time I went to a doll meet I was petrifed and ended up hiding under the table while my two now ex-friends tried to coax me back out telling me that no one was going to think I was that weird if I just got out from under the table. Now it was a lot of people and I don't do well in a group of more than 2-3. But now I am much better at going to them.:cute:
 
Yes I have very much the same as above. I thought it was just nervouseness but it still that way with people I have known for years. To lessen anxiety I try to stay in the background or try to plan out all my movements and what I am going to say and hope its going to be percived as appropriate and not rude or retarded. You see, I really do like these people, it me I dont trust, that I get all the signals wrong and have everyone end up hating me. aggk!
 
Me too!

So i try to be early. Better be early than late.

I get nervous before entering a building or waiting room. When I'm late for an appointment, most of the time I'll turn around and go back home. I get mad at myself for it because I let it bother me so bad. Me and my boyfriend have been going to a local auction on the weekends and I get really nervous. Once I'm in and settled in a seat I'm ok. But at first I'm always really nervous.
 

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