mentally exhausted interacting with other people

I gave up teaching due to ill-health, then received my diagnosis afterwards. It was never the actual lesson delivery that affected me, but the requirement to interact with students and staff members outside of lesson time.

I have the same experience with messaging.

Same, here, Amber :(

Yes!

I do find it tiring. Less so when teaching, that is just tiring because it's work. Socially it's tiring in a different way though

I've found its got worse too

It’s rough isn’t it.

I actually do like socialising sometimes though, I am basically a very sociable person, it’s just that I’m also a bit of a mess… I generally like to hear about people’s lives and discuss common interests. I just need my own time too. I didn’t used to get as fatigued as I do now from socialising actually, either it’s down to my health being worse or a lifetime of struggling with certain disadvantages having taken its toll.

depends on who i am interacting with, but it does happen.

Roguelife said:

I get both worn out and worked up. Anyone ever feel that? Like your keyed up and can't relax after just having socialised for an hour or so.

Yes, that's adrenaline. Prevents you from relaxing and makes you feel "wired" but paradoxically you can feel tired at the same time.

This often happens to me when I have stayed awake for too long. The body gives you adrenaline for a "second wind", so you have this frustrating state of being both tired and unable to sleep.

I often get like that after too much social interaction, because I'm on edge from socialising but also drained. So afterwards I don't have the energy to do much but also can't relax.

I get both worn out and worked up. Anyone ever feel that? Like your keyed up and can't relax after just having socialised for an hour or so. It's like it sets off some reaction in me, gets my adrenaline going or something... once my minds been set off whirring in a different direction I can't stop it. 

I definitely get the tiredness too though, I think it's because it takes so much mental energy to know how to respond all the time. If I don't put energy into my thought process I'm prone to talking ***. 

Yes. Very definitely

I'm the same.

I ghost people all of the time because I cannot keep up with responding to messages. I don’t mean to and I feel absolutely awful and guilty for doing so. It takes so much energy and concentration and reviewing to make sure I have written an appropriate response. Normally I ask my mum or dad to word the message for me. If I happen to receive notifications for more than one message in a close time frame I cannot cope with it and I do nothing. Sometimes this lasts for months. My friends are so kind to me about it but I know they can’t understand why this is the case for me and I know how stressful it is to not receive a reply so it must be an awful experience for them too. I wish this wasn’t the case but I still struggle with this everyday. 

Yep. I do what I have to do to get through my work day, but then stop interacting as soon as I can afterwards.

I can easily switch off in a conversation and then it becomes difficult to continue without starting to feel a bit frustrated and wanting to be somewhere else. The worst for me is WhatsApp groups - I can't stay engaged for months on end having random messages / chats. I had to say to friends that I couldn't keep replying, but I don't think they understand why and it's too hard to explain.

Yes! It massively effects me. Normally when I get home from a social interaction (even if just going to the pharmacy to collect my prescription), I am exhausted and my body tends to almost shutdown and I fall asleep without control over it. I used to be very frustrated by it and try to fight falling asleep but since getting diagnosed I have allowed myself to recognise my body needs the rest to recover from the stress of interacting.

Thanks, Morgan. This is my experience too.

yeah, when I'm alone socialising doesn't seem that bad, but the second plans are made to see anyone I start overthinking everything. It's weird, I like the idea of socialising but it never lives up to expectations. Once I'm hanging out with people I'm constantly anxious and don't say that much, so I start talking but then regret the things I say and stop talking again. It's worse with non-immediate family members cause they don't know you as well as friends, but you're still expected to talk to them and see them. Whenever I talk to anyone I always think i'm making a bad impression. If i mask, then i feel like most of the things i'm saying are pointless and I don't even care about any of the things I talk about so there isn't any enjoyment from the conversation. But if I try and be myself, I realise that I often don't know what to say at all - particularly if I'm not speaking to one of the few people I'm comfortable with.

I don't usually. I took a very early retirement and so I don't have to cope with people in a work setting. I'm able to live quite happily without too much contact, but every so often, circumstances conspire to force me to spend a lot of time interacting. Like yesterday. Today, I'm exhausted. It feels as if I've had all the energy sucked out of me. Thanks for taking the time to respond by the way.

I had to spend a lot of time with people yesterday, Desmond. Thanks for taking the time to respond by the way. Today, I'm exhausted. It feels as if I've had all the energy sucked out of me. 

Thanks for replying, Untoward. I'm totally drained today. I can barely function. Yesterday, I had to spend a lot of time with other people.

My family want to go away as a group in September... I'm not sure it's such a good idea..

Thanks for responding, Riddler.