I think I could endure social contact a lot easier if I could give myself permission to say "Eye contact hurts so I'll be looking at this coffee cup whilst we talk" and then do it.
But to get there requires unlearning decades of learned adaptation.
One reason I enjoy the social aspects of my running club so much is that there can't possibly be any expectation of eye contact when you're running next to someone. We also often run at a comfortable pace so that chatting is possible, and once I'm on an interesting topic I enjoy chatting (and yes, listening too :-) ) with running friends enormously.
One thing that seems difficult to convey to people is that, yes, I *can* do eye contact and each individual look doesn't cost that much (at least to start with) but over time each look gets harder and there comes a point where I'm exhausted.
No particular question here, just sharing.
