are people REALLY staring?

i hear you guys say all the time "i always feel like people are staring at me", but are they really?...for me, they are. i just love walking into a room and everyone is smiling and laughing and they stop and look at me and their face falls, that always gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. have you looked around and actually seen them staring? for me, when i see them, it just fuels my anxiety

when i walk into a room people look at me like i have 2 heads or something!

is it all in my head?

I guess it's all in our minds.
the challenge is how to stop our minds from doing that to us.

For me, I always look down at the ground when I enter the classroom or the resturant or somewhere like that, but still sometimes I just forget what foot to move now right or left because of people's staring.. and I'm not kidding!

hey thelostworld, they really are staring! (at me anyway) Really pisses me off :evil: And I get the "are you sad today?" question or "what's wrong?" So fuckin annoying, and usually makes it worse. I catch people staring at me all the time, makes me feel like a freak :x

yeah people stare at me. i avoid it by looking at the ground. last week my parents and i had lunch at mcdonalds cause were were driving for hours..and..yes. anyway, i just had a drink because i cant eat in public places and i looked up and i saw some asian guy taking photos of me.... 8O 8O 8O thanks to him then next time i stepped into an eating area i almost had a panic attack. i was looking around the whole room every second and felt really hot and i could'nt breath properly and i wanted to go back to the car and hide... :x

Well I believe people stare and mock me but sometimes I kind of get confused as I start to question myself..."were they really staring at ME or am I just being paranoid?"....ha ha crazy!

I found that looking at the ground gives people more of a reason to stare because there aware that your trying to hide from something, so I tend to keep my head up and avoid eye contact completely this way if I do catch someone looking in my direction in the corner of my eye I will turn the other way, anything so I can not see them looking in my direction.......

Yes they did. At least for me. They stared at me, they laughed at me, and said things like, "My god, what is she wearing?!" and "What the hell is up with her hair?!", etc.

Sorry to but in on your post, but yeah i always feel like people are staring at me to, i sort of know in the back of my mind that there not, but at the time the feeling is really intense and i cant shake it off

I usually combat this by staring at people...

Unfortunately this results in most people thinking I'm hostile. I don't know what else to do, though, a lot of the time. It's strange, you know; people are forever telling me how 'confident' I appear. I must really, really, put on a good show.

Hey JoeRandomUser, I think I stare at people too, mostly in utter amazement at how normal they can act :roll:

i think over time i've convinced myself that they aren't. i just fear what they think when they're not looking at me :roll:

JoeRandomUser said:

I usually combat this by staring at people...

Unfortunately this results in most people thinking I'm hostile. I don't know what else to do, though, a lot of the time. It's strange, you know; people are forever telling me how 'confident' I appear. I must really, really, put on a good show.

Click to expand...

hehe. i do that so bad. Sometimes i stare at the ground, then ill kinda try and appear confident so i straighten up, and stare..and i get people going "wtf you starting at bitch?" and "fuck off wanker" stuff like that lmao..i think im better staring at the ground, like the person up there said^^ trying to remember how to walk.

maggie said:

Hey JoeRandomUser, I think I stare at people too, mostly in utter amazement at how normal they can act :roll:

Click to expand...

I find the psychology of SP quite fascinating, to be honest. Why is it that we feel that everybody else is 'normal' and we are the ones who are 'strange'?

People, in general, are pretty weird... have you ever just sat around and watched them? I can't think of one person I know that doesn't have some quirk or other that makes them a little odd. Yet I accept them for who they are anyway, quirks and all. Why is it, then, that I fear they won't accept me for who I am? It doesn't seem to add up.

I think it boils down to the fact that I have a hard time accepting myself for who I am. This is the key, for me, I believe. If I could do this, I reckon I'd have SP licked.

My logic is if I'm doing it, they're doing it. I look at others so someone, sometime, must be looking at me.
I form opinions of people on the spot too. If someone is wearing a blue sweater, then obviously that person likes blue. :roll:

Sorry, I should have explained it better. When I was talking about people's quirks, I was thinking more of people you do know; people you talk to. Do you judge/critique them as harshly? When I'm in conversation, I don't honestly get a chance to. I'm usually far too preoccupied with how I'm coming across to them to have time to make any lasting judgements. :?

Are they really staring?

I am so glad that I read your stories guys. WOW!!! I thought I was so alone in all this. Its so annoying. I'll walk into a place, like say Dunkin' Donuts to buy a cup of coffee and I feel like everyone in the whole place is saying, oh my god look she has dirt on her shoes, or what the hell is she wearing....and I will ALWAYS go to the same store to buy certain things, stores that I'm comfortable in. Like, I just moved about a month ago and I will drive 10 minutes out of my way to go to the Dunkin' Donuts I am used to just to buy a damn cup of coffee, and I'm still anxious as hell just getting out of the protection of my car. I constantly feel like people are judging me, probably because I do that to them, I never give anyone a chance, I judge people immediately. Say if a girl walks into the room with a shirt that doesn't quite cover her up, automatically I think she's a little slutty, even though I have the same shirt on. Its so fucking weird. I can't stand it. And my husband can't stand it. He's so non-understanding of the whole thing. Like I hate going shopping by myself. I have 2 little boys, ages 8 and 5 and I will ALWAYS bring one of them with me if my husband isn't with me. Just so that I'm not alone, if I make an ass of myself I know someone is there to look like an ass with me.

It was so bad my senior year of high school, that I missed 87 days of school and had to go to summer school to get my diploma. All because I was so afraid that people were talking about me.

People will always look at you, staring is quite another thing. We all look about to see whos around, its a natural thing to want to see whats going on etc. Maybe you should realise that for you to notice them looking at you, you are obvioulsy looking at them...maybe they also feel as uncomfortable as you do.

Yeah, like Colin I'm always thinking that no matter where I am when outdoors, someone, somewhere will be watching what I'm doing, so I'm always self-concious....walking down a quiet street at night, I'm thinking someone is bound to be peeking out of their window.....walking along a quiet country lane, I'm thinking someone might be in the field behind the hedge, watching as I walk by, so I'm always on my guard and find it very hard to really let go, except when at home.....it's tiresome.

And, of course,, when in busy places like a super-market or pub (not that I go to pubs any more), I'm thinking that with so many people around, at least some of them are bound to be watching me, not least on the security cameras. The problem is compounded by the fact that feeling a heightened level of self-conciousness in these busy situations makes me feel anxious, which in turn makes me look and behave anxiously, which is more likely to attract other people's attention, so they really will be staring at me.....bit of a vicious circle.

i always think about it way too much. i tell myself that people aren't staring at me. like on the bus (i have to ride it all the time at college), the seats face each other. and i always feel like the people will know i'm feeling uneasy by the pattern my eyes go or that i'm blinking too much trying not to look at anyone else in the eye, like they know i'm trying too hard to stare between peoples heads outthe other window rather than casually looking around thinking in another world...