# Anxiety Disorders > Social Anxiety Disorder >  >  Being watched vs interacting with others vs going outside.

## Antidote

Which makes you anxious? You can pick more than one for the poll but please write about which one affects you most (if you like). 


1) Being possibly watched by others in public when you are doing things like: eating, drinking, writing, walking etc in public (performance based SA).

2) Having to interact with people: casual greetings, long conversations, asking questions, making complaints etc (interaction based SA).

3) Having a panic attack when; going outside, crossing streets, waiting in lines, on public transport etc (this is probably more agoraphobia than SA).

----------


## Misssy

(2) people often think I don't like them, I am just not comfortable in greeting people etc.

----------


## Antidote

Please remember to vote.  ::):

----------


## Ont Mon

Being watched for me definitely. Out of all those walking in public has always made me feel awkward and self conscious

----------


## merc

Definitely two, I kind of have a people phobia and it takes a good deal of courage for me to greet people sometimes. People do think you hate them when you don't greet them. However, when I'm really anxious and stressed then I have some issues with number one. You know what is kind of funny. My Mom is from town, you know small yards, houses lined up, sidewalks etc. I always felt like I was being watched when visiting there. A weird unable to relax kind of feeling. As I child I could have stood on the road in front of my house all day long without seeing a car.

----------


## IllusionOfHappiness

Number one. Being watched is (usually) more anxiety-inducing than making conversation for me, though that may be a close second.

----------


## Still Waters

This is a toughie!  I chose one and two.  Just last night I was eating a wrap from McDonalds and was having issues.  The restaurant was crowded with loud preteens all trying to outdo each other for attention.  Eating in public tends to weird me out but I've gotten much better at it,I can do it now,but it's not always easy.  Anyway,because of my nerves,I guess I wasn't holding it tight enough and everything was spilling out of the sides and end.  Of course the more I realized this,the worse it became,I swear I probably looked like a three year old eating!  I normally would have thrown it away and simply not eaten,I barreled through but I just felt so miserable and crazy desperate to get out of there.  It's sad I can't enjoy a simple fast food meal because I allow myself to be consumed with embarrassment over doing what other people do with no concern whatsoever.

Conversations are quite the ordeal too -Ugh -Sorry for my wacky long novella of an answer...

----------


## Inscrutable Banana

Knowing that I'm being observed by people bothers me more than interacting most of the time, although the latter is definitely a close second. Going outside isn't a problem in itself, but going outside usually involves being observed or having to interact with people.

When I was much heavier I developed a bit of a phobia of having people watch me eat, thinking they were gawking at the fat kid shoving food into his face and making judgements. Now that I'm 100lbs lighter than I was then that has largely gone away, but it's still there lingering in the background a bit. I dislike people seeing me do anything though, really. In my mind there's always just a really cynical and pessimistic assumption that people are making extremely harsh judgements of me based on unrealistic expectations, even if it comes down to something as simple as people seeing me cutting weeds in my front lawn or waiting for a traffic light to change.

Interaction with other people is a big problem to, but it's the worst during the time leading up to the interaction. Once I meet the person and have been around them and talked to them for a little while my level of anxiety drops dramatically, although I'm never entirely relaxed unless I've known someone for a long time.

----------


## Member11

> Which makes you anxious? You can pick more than one for the poll but please write about which one affects you most (if you like). 
> 
> 
> 1) Being possibly watched by others in public when you are doing things like: eating, drinking, writing, walking etc in public (performance based SA).
> 
> 2) Having to interact with people: casual greetings, long conversations, asking questions, making complaints etc (interaction based SA).
> 
> 3) Having a panic attack when; going outside, crossing streets, waiting in lines, on public transport etc (this is probably more agoraphobia than SA).



Definitely 1, and a bit of 2.

----------


## SmileyFace

Being watched. I hate that. Its like....hello, you never seen a person do these things before?

Over the past few months, I got better at casually greeting people and holding conversations.

----------


## Misssy

Scopophobia

----------


## toaster little

For me, it's usually "being watched" I think.  No matter how attractive the girl is, if she's looking at me a certain way, I usually feel uncomfortable.  This is usually from someone who went to school with me and think it's so funny to give me weird looks just to get a reaction out of me.  In the past, people didn't do this type of stuff to each other.  They didn't make weird faces or throw something in your way just to "mess with you."  I just feel like this trend of playing jokes on people you know is always going too far and that makes me dislike a lot of people I meet.  If your whole relationship with someone is based on playing mean tricks on each other and getting each other back constantly and occasionally being happy with each other, I can't justify wanting to be involved.

Every now and then at different jobs I've had, I had people stare at me while I worked.  Sometimes I just wanted to confront them about why they were staring at me so much, but I couldn't do that since they were customers and managers don't like losing sales or dealing with a bad reputation.  Even though I hated it, I did a pretty good job and the managers and supervisors said I was doing things very well and they liked having me around.  Even after good evaluations, I didn't want to go back, but whenever I did show up to work, I tried to convince people I was happy to be there and it was enough for every single person to notice without questioning my feelings about working there.

----------


## nemmm3

1 and 2 definitely!
I always feel like I'm being watched and it makes me so anxious.
The other day my bestfriend put me on the phone with her dad, I've never spoken to him before and for most of the conversation I just laughed because I had no idea what to say. I hate when she puts me on the spot like that.

----------


## toaster little

> 1 and 2 definitely!
> I always feel like I'm being watched and it makes me so anxious.
> The other day my bestfriend put me on the phone with her dad, I've never spoken to him before and for most of the conversation I just laughed because I had no idea what to say. I hate when she puts me on the spot like that.



I hate being put on the spot too.  I get way too nervous and I can't answer a lot of questions I usually know the answer to, which makes me look dumb  ::(: 

Then people around me go on to assume that I must not be very bright, unfortunately.

----------


## VickieKitties

Being observed, for sure, especially when engaging in compulsive behavior.  Some interaction sucks too.  Like eye contact with strangers or having to train new associates at work.

----------


## Misssy

Today I had to meet a couple of people who were renting out space, thankfully they were both chicks. I think I come across just weird and boring when I first meet people. I get uncomfortable when I am put on the spot, when people ask me direct questions about myself eliciting a response sometimes I think it just doesn't come out that well.

----------


## h00dz

1 and 2 totally get that feeling :/

----------


## SmileyFace

I just realized "Going outside" is an option. I never saw that before unless this was recently put in lol. Anywho, I don't get anxious at all about going outside; in fact, I love going outside. I prefer it since I'm home or cooped up in the school cafe/library so damn much. It's just so refreshing and nice to just be outside. Of course, that doesn't mean my anxiety is any better compared to those who are afraid to go outside and such. It's a constant battle with myself all the time when experiencing anxiety over other things, so...

----------


## Dane

Mostly 2, and slightly 1, unless you count things like public speaking.  In that case No. 1 can cause major problems.

I don't have any problems with going outside.

----------


## Chantellabella

Definitely number 2. Even though I am able to interact with people, my stress level while I do it is really high. It's not with everybody. If I've gotten to know someone as a friend, then I'm very relaxed. But talking to people I don't know or people in authority, just has me shaking like crazy inside. You'd never know it though because I can fake a smile really well.

----------

