Struggling with Communication and Social Anxiety

@TayTayLove Same. I always am upfront about my mental disorders because I need people to understand why I say things a certain way or act a certain. Because most times I don't realize I'm doing it until I'm laying down for bed. Lol. Then I'm like "oh they probably think I'm a jerk."

@GracefulKim 😭

@GracefulKim exactly I get so uncomfortable with situations where I feel like someone is manipulating or lying and I get wierd 😂

@TayTayLove I totally get it!! Like I said it takes practice. If you only focus on the words they say then you'll be able to discuss those words. Or expound on them. Sometimes people have to lie to protect their feelings or they think it's not safe to tell the truth. I had to learn to let them tell that the way they could. I now view lying as either a manipulation tool intended to con someone OR as a self protective mechanism with no intent to harm. Most autistics can definitely tell when someone is lying. When someone tells me the truth after a lie, I'm not surprised anymore. I'm thankful they finally told me the truth. I don't feel betrayed like the people in TV are. I'm thankful that finally feel comfortable enough with me to let their guard down. Also since I misinterpret many things using their words and tone allows me a focus. Something I can continue to learn from. We learn, with time, how to read situations. We know how to sense emotion. I would want to help those people but I thought, and still defer to, giving advice would help. Now I know they just want someone to listen to them, sit with them, and not do anything else but hold their hand and show empathy. That still is a very very hard thing for me to do because my brain is still going 100 mph during that. So I look around the room I'm in and get curious and the next thing I know I've ruined the moment by changing the subject to some question about this item. So I now avoid sitting with grieving, sad people but I get misinterpreted by doing that. (They say I'm Insensitive or selfish or careless). So I still haven't figured that one out.

@TayTayLove Honestly it is always hard to cope with it. I used to read books about communicating correctly and how to make friends and why people communicate the way they do..and i know this may sound a little centered to say aloud but not everyone sees the world the same way i do and not everyone can understand me the way i understand myself. Sometimes it is easier to cope with the differences between how they speak aloud and speak silently by thinking of the fact that it is simply that not everyone communicates the same way; we are all so very diverse and it is impossible for one person to completely understand each person they come across..doesn't help much with the social anxiety but it is nice to know that we all have trouble with communication one way or another.