Social awkwardness, anxiety, or avoidance

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Social awkwardness, anxiety, or avoidance?
social awkwardness 24%  24%  [ 21 ]
social anxiety 23%  23%  [ 20 ]
social avoidance 39%  39%  [ 34 ]
other - please explain 15%  15%  [ 13 ]
Total votes : 88

dianthus
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08 Dec 2011, 9:03 pm

Which one affects you the most?

Social Awkwardness = making mistakes in social situations, difficulty reading signals from other people

Social Anxiety = fear of social situations, fear of being mistreated

Social Avoidance = would rather not interact with people, prefer being alone



Tuttle
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08 Dec 2011, 9:06 pm

Would "Do not know how to interact with people in meaningful ways" fall under other or social awkwardnesss or what?



btbnnyr
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08 Dec 2011, 9:06 pm

I voted other, because it's a combination of awkwardness and avoidance for me.

I can't handle much social interaction without getting overloaded, but I don't experience anxiety during social interactions. I do make mistakes due to not reading and responding to social cues most of the time.



anneurysm
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08 Dec 2011, 9:46 pm

I voted anxiety. Usually I assess social situations as worse or more threatening than they actually are. This is coupled with a lot of avoidance because while I love being around people for a certain length of time, it is exhausting.


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08 Dec 2011, 10:16 pm

For me I'd say it's all of them. I make social misttakes, so I become afraid of people lashing out at me for illogical reasons, so I avoid social interaction.



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08 Dec 2011, 10:21 pm

Definitely all of the above.


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08 Dec 2011, 10:28 pm

I voted other because I believe for me it is a combination of all of them. The social awkwardness creates the social anxiety in me, and that leads to me avoiding social situations as much as possible. So it could come down to what came first, the chicken or the egg here---perhaps it is the social awkwardness that came first???


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dianthus
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08 Dec 2011, 10:37 pm

I can imagine for most of us, it is some combination of all of the above, but I am asking which affects you the most?

The reason I am asking, is I am trying to figure out which one of the 3 is the biggest factor in my isolation. Offhand I would pick "avoidance" but I am not sure if the avoidance is just avoidance for its own sake. Maybe it is driven by an underlying fear repeating past hurtful experiences, or maybe my avoidance is driven by my inability to understand what is going on in social interactions.

I am wondering, if I were able to magically resolve my awkwardness and anxiety, would the desire to avoid people still be there?



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08 Dec 2011, 10:40 pm

All of them apply to me, I'm not sure which affects me more. I do like being with people I know well. I get most anxious when I'm in a crowded place or a room full of people, so I guess for me it's awkwardness, then anxiety, then avoidance.



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08 Dec 2011, 11:18 pm

Avoidance first, then awkwardness.
Anxiety doesn't even come into it.


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MakaylaTheAspie
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08 Dec 2011, 11:31 pm

*avoids talking to other people in this thread*


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MindWithoutWalls
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08 Dec 2011, 11:41 pm

Social awkwardness, social overload (too bad it wasn't an option of its own) probably tied with social anxiety, then social avoidance, I think. So, except that you didn't list one, they're pretty much in the right order for me. But if I thought about it some more on another day, I might realize it's actually some other order. I'm learning to understand myself better over time, now that I'm learning so much new stuff to help me. These discussions are proving to be an important part of that.


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AlastorX
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09 Dec 2011, 5:28 am

I voted avoidance because it's the end result of awkwardness and sometimes anxiety. It's quite logical really - like, if something burns you, you avoid it.



skenasis
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09 Dec 2011, 5:47 am

I voted awkwardness. It's definitely the one that affects me the most, although I do suffer from all of them to some extent.



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09 Dec 2011, 6:22 am

My main problem in social situations is "I have nothing to say"; from the point of view, this could count as both "awkwardness" and "avoidance", then I choosed "avoidance"



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09 Dec 2011, 7:28 am

dianthus wrote:
Which one affects you the most?

Social Awkwardness = making mistakes in social situations, difficulty reading signals from other people

Social Anxiety = fear of social situations, fear of being mistreated

Social Avoidance = would rather not interact with people, prefer being alone


I have all three.



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