Treated Differently?

[alter_ego]

I haven't been here for a while because I was doing okay - or thought I was - but there've been a lot of changes in work lately and I'm a bit stressed with my anxiety problems. What I wanted to ask was, does anyone else have the experience that just because they're very shy they're treated as though they're made of glass?

Last week someone had a row with a colleague and later asked me if I found her intimidating. I said no (I don't find her intimidating but then I get on fine with her tho not everybody does) and she told me the person she'd had the row with said she intimidated them. Next day she told me she'd gone to our boss to tell her, "Well, the quietest, most sensitive person in the office doesn't find me intimidating..."

wtf...? 8O How does she KNOWif I'm sensitive or not? Well, okay, I am but that's not the point. And I thought I talked a lot more these days, I'll chat away to anyone tho I'm not loud.

Today we had a fire practice and I walked out with my old boss and she was telling me (I don't mean in a nasty way, she was being nice) to be careful where I walked as the road was uneven. Okay, I have a bit of a limp atm and maybe she noticed but she wasn't worried about anyone else!

Then a younger colleague today said she hated a certain slang word and the guy she was telling wasn't sure what it meant until she whispered it to him. I said she had me baffled too but instead of just telling me she said (again in a nce way) she didn't think it was for my ears! For ****'s sake, I'm not 5 years old!

I get this kind of reaction often. Why do most people seem to imagine they have to tread very, very carefully around shy people? I feel like yelling sometimes "I'm not made of ******* glass!"...but, being shy, I'd hate everyone to turn round and stare at me if I did...

I

 

[SickerJoke]

So you admit that you're sensitive and shy, but you don't want to be treated like a sensitive, shy person? You can't change everyone else; you can only change yourself.

 

[dan_e]

OMG this happens to me all the time! People apologize when they curse near me or for venting (after I just gone done venting to them). At times when I've gone out with people I felt like I was being babysat.

 

[fenkat]

just mess with them..start crying whenever they swear.
but seriously, i get this too. I don't take it too personally though. if they want to think of me as super innocent then they can... :twisted:

I think in most of these situations, people are just trying to be considerate/nice, so don't let it get to you. but yah, its true that if you seem sensitive and shy, people will treat you like that..better than being bullied by some asshole that senses your shyness though, right? that bothers me even more.