Did you do weird things as a kid to keep people away?

Post Reply New Topic

This is something from my past that I've all but forgotten, mostly because it's pretty embarrassing and I never mention it to anyone. It was my everyday way of coping with school, especially in 5th and 6th grade (I moved to a new area just before 5th grade, and had a much harder time fitting in than ever before).

Basically, I would barely talk to anyone in my class that I didn't want talking to me. I would turn them away with this vaguely cat-like animal sound, a "maow" or "raow," or something like that. Despite this, I was somehow I was still able to have a few friends (not really until 6th grade though, because I was in a different school)... I guess I was persistent enough in following the people I liked, and talked to them enough, for them to accept me. I was infamous for my "maow" sound, but it was just crazy enough to work. I wasn't bullied too much until 5th grade as far as I can remember, and it did help keep unwanted people away. I remember I even recommended this technique to a classmate once, because it seemed to work for me. Of course, I feel it would have been better to have actually tried to acquire some social skills during this time, but my nature was to keep everyone away, except for the few that I identified as potential friends.

Another thing I did, which wasn't so much to intentionally keep people away as it was to just do my own thing, I had a favorite tree on the playground in 6th grade (I started going to a private school in 6th grade, which was still elementary there). I circled around this tree all recess. Just paced around it and thought about whatever I wanted to think about. I went there to be alone. Occasionally a few kids would join me, I guess to figure out why I had so much fun doing this.

It's always puzzled me why people say people who do bizarre things are just "looking for attention." I suppose maybe there are some people like that... but for me, the intent was quite the opposite... I just wanted to be left alone, except by a few nice people. If I thought you were a nice person that I could consider to be a friend, I'd talk to you. If not, "maow" means "go away."

I almost always do my own thing in public without caring what other people really think. I tend to gravitate towards activities which I both find interesting and unusual (i.e., the unusualness of something usually makes it more attractive to me).

I've almost always had better success with people when they approach me than when I approach them, so I think one of the functions of such public display of activity is a filter. People who are genuinely curious about something I'm doing may approach me to talk; people who don't just stay away. This inherently increases my people success rate.

Sometimes when I want someone to go away I stare into their eyes (Or the back of their head.) and don't say a word until they get creeped out and walk away. Hehe, it works like a charm.

i still do this with my headphone on ears and reading a book at the same time just to keep people away from me.as most people wont be nice and patient with me.so i have this safeguard to protect me from bullies.but whenever i put off my guard i am all theirs.they can get as mean as they want.through kindergarten to university i still have to put a fence around me and do things quite unlike people.i dont like the same thing as others.i dont go with the flow.it's weird enough for a girl.specially when she keeps her mouth shut all the time.girls are meant to be talkative atleast a lil.another humiliating thing i did to keep all the creep and bully out of my way is to stay unwashed for days.ewww dirty.but that worked a whole lot better.no one was messing around or no one out there to get me.i felt so safe.being smelly is gross .lol.but people stayed out of my way though they hated me but i did not care.so sad being grownup this is not a good way to keep people away.
lolzzzz

I still meow when people ask stupid questions. I do recall one occasion in day care; I sat in a corner of the playground and put a bucket over my head. The faculty ended up forgetting me there until they took roll in the classroom. In later years I just read on the playground. I still can't resist putting clean buckets on my head though...
*edited for an annoying punctuation mistake

Last edited by book_noodles on 22 Jul 2010, 3:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

headphones, sunglasses and a book, not unusual but less likely to draw attention on a bus than a bucket. now, if i could put EVERYONE else's head in a bucket, that might work for me.

I talk to myself about how I will take over the World!

Don't underestimate the comfortingly dark, cold silence of a bucket! Just ask Brainfre3ze_93 ...the bag is a similar concept.

Hmm, I did weird things that resulted in keeping people away. I didn't do them with the intention of keeping people away.

I had no difficulty 'keeping people away from me' at school.

I wasn't consciously doing anything to cause it and it certainly wasn't my objective to be totally alone with no friends.

Just 'being me' was enough to keep anyone away.

I would hit.

Effective yet risky.

In high school, I always had a paperback that I would read in order to keep people from talking to me. I also read it because it interested me. I was unusual, since these were not assigned books.

When I was younger (but old enough to be in school) I remember doing something which now seems kind of odd. I would pluck one of my hairs and tie knots in it. I don't remember what my motivation was. Maybe subconsciously I did it to keep people at a distance.

I remember from kindergarten on upward plucking stalks of grass during recess (or any other time I was outside) and tying them repeatedly into knots. Sometimes flowers, too, if they were flexible. People would ask if I were going to make a chain or a crown, but I wouldn't answer; I just tied knots and then got a new stalk to begin all over again.
I began to do other things during recess around the middle of elementary school (read, write and draw on the school steps alone), but I never quite lost the knot habit. To this day, if I'm outside near grass and my hands aren't occupied, I knot and braid the stalks. Never tried hair, though.

I tended to do it during classes which I found boring. I later did a lot of doodling which often consisted of what looked like a very long road which looped under and over itself (a type of knot?) which would eventually fill the page. I remember once when a female classmate looked over and saw it and broke into loud laughter. It is kind of funny in retrospect.