How I explain what SA feels like to people

[applesewer]

This is how I explain what SA feels like to people as best I can. It's like imagine going through your day then getting some really bad news. Something really big and important that you just can't seem to shake off your mind. like something concerning a family member or something. Then imagine getting invited to a dinner party in the evening. Your natural instinct will be that you don't wanna go, but maybe this news is something private that you can't tell anyone about, and you don't want to offend anyone by not going or let on to anyone that there might be something wrong. So you hide it.

Then when you get to the dinner party you think, ok I'll just forget this news for the evening and try to enjoy myself...but you just can't let it go. it's like this weight hanging over you. And all the people around you are laughing and joking, and you try to smile along with them, but it's not real...it feels fake...because you know what you really wanna deal with right now is this news that you've recieved. And the trivial things that people talk about suddenly seem so pointless and people start to look different like they're in this happy world while you're full of worry and fear and you start to assume that they must be faking it too. Or maybe you'll start to doubt reality...thinking, this can't be real...everybody else seems to be living in one world, while I'm in this whole different world of my own. so you feel detatched and alone.

umm yea...anyone relate? how would you try to explain to people what SA feels like?

 

[thequietone]

That's a good way to explain it.
I would say: imagine you were this anxious alien from outerspace but you look like a regular person and no one knows. You struggle to fit in in order to hide the secret, you don't know how these humans will react. You don't understand their customs. You go through cycles of reclusion and a desperate need for companionship. You are an outsider, like you said, worrywort, in a separate world.
:roll: Maybe that's a little dramatic, but I sometimes feel like someone from another planet!

 

[renegade]

worrywort, from my own experience, no matter how good you explain, no matter how much scentific and rigurous materials you show to one who didn't experienced SA, you can't get him to understand

unless he studied psychology or pshichiatry, but even then he doesn't understand at least half of what it's like

to give you an example, it's like explaining love to one who hasn't loved all his life, to explaind sound to a deaf man and so on...

from what i noticed, it is best if you say to someone you have avoidant personality disorder, cause that is somewhat easier to understand. Btw, as far as i'm concerned, APD is a consequence of SA.

 

[applesewer]

cheers for the replies, and yeah I know what you mean renegade...there are some people I've told that just don't seem to understand at all!

and thanks worrydoll! I didn't think anyone would remember me!...yeah, I'm ok, just took a little break from the site but it's good to be back!