Published on 12, July, 2020
i am volunteering at the moment but im struggle to communicate well ive always been very quiet but only recently found out im autistic whenever im volunteering i always wait till im spoke to as have bad social anxiety and find it hard to start conversations and keep them going how can become more socially confident and feel better about talking people the main reason i struggle to start conversation is worry i will be ignored then laughed at and i do anything to avoid embrassment how can i be better at making conversations with the other workers? any advice is appreicated
In the past, you've had experiences where people embarrassed you, ignored you, and laughed at you, and that damaged your self esteem, and made you nervous to talk to people. It could also be that your autism made it hard for others to relate to you, because they could sense that you were different, and they treated you negatively as a result.
But the type of people who would embarass, ignore, or laugh at you, are not the type of people you want to be friends with anyways. And luckily, a majority of people are not like that, and most people are kind and respectful of others, especially at a volunteer organization, where people are there to just help out.
I would say to try and say hi at the very least. Try thinking about getting to know the other person, rather than thinking that they're going to treat you badly somehow. Think about just having a nice conversation with someone, hearing their stories, about why they are volunteering, about what their professions are, and what they hope to gain by being there. Things like that. I hope things work well for you.
Hullabaloo said:And luckily, a majority of people are not like that
This is so true!
Growing up I was so worried that everyone was horrible because I had been bullied at school but most people are actually nice.
A great deal of the population have social anxiety so chances are a lot of people are probably as scared of interacting as we are lol.