• Replies 13 replies
  • Subscribers 91 subscribers
  • Views 663 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Eye contact

Autismman

I don’t mind giving eye contact to those I know well like my family but it can be difficult or almost impossible when it’s strangers in a non scripted environment like perhaps people outside in the general public. Not that I would need to stare for prolonged amounts of time but I know there should be some almost unconscious natural interaction between people  even with just the eyes in their everyday lives. I also struggle to do this with a lot of my work colleagues predominantly managers but also a few colleagues, it seems selective to whether I have a firm enough grasp on who I think they are at their core and the general feeling or vibe I get from their being. If I find their topic of conversation boring or they don’t want to stop talking the eye contact becomes even less I have noticed. I am super aware of how little eye contact I give which in turn makes my anxiety worse because then I think everyone must think I’m weird, I just cannot connect to people very easily. The eyes are the windows to the soul and it definitely feels this way for me. Giving someone your eyes is like opening up a door to let others into your world and it’s a scary idea. Do others experience anything like this? I am diagnosed with ASD level 1 but trying to get an understanding of it so that maybe I can stop being so hard on myself. I am trying to remember to remember that a lot of autism is invisible and only felt inside oneself.

Parents

  • I am uncomfortable lookimg people in the eye, and I get increasingly uncomfortable the longer I sustain eye contact, until I have to look away. My mother was always banging on about people who don’t look you in the eye being shifty, so I quickly learned that eye contact was expected of me. 

    i tend to look people in the eye at the start of a conversation and then look at their lower face, interspersed with eye contact. For me eye contact isn’t anything to do with opening a window to the soul;  it just isn’t a natural place for me to focus. 

Reply

  • I am uncomfortable lookimg people in the eye, and I get increasingly uncomfortable the longer I sustain eye contact, until I have to look away. My mother was always banging on about people who don’t look you in the eye being shifty, so I quickly learned that eye contact was expected of me. 

    i tend to look people in the eye at the start of a conversation and then look at their lower face, interspersed with eye contact. For me eye contact isn’t anything to do with opening a window to the soul;  it just isn’t a natural place for me to focus. 

Children
No Data