What does eye contact actually do to you?

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I wanna live in Japan!! !

I know! People have thought I was Vietnamese for a second before. In asian countries they don't really do eye contact, people don't bat an eye at goths/oddly dressed people, much less hassle them, and they're not so confrontational. *sigh* Pity I can't handle planes.

Same here, It just feels wrong to me. I can look into the eyes of a girl i care about but, for only a few seconds longer than usual. What are we supposed to look at anyway? One eye, switch between the two? Its just not right.

Yes! For animals, staring directly into another's eyes usually indicates hostility. Trying to 'stare you down'. It's often a threat, or at the least, an attempt to assert dominance. Two friendly animals don't make a great deal of eye contact. Each is not saying to the other, "I don't like you and don't want to look at you," but, "I like and trust you enough not to have to keep looking at you. I know the chances of you suddenly attacking me are very low, so I am free to relax and give my attention to other things rather than having to watch you."

I find prolonged eye contact very intimidating. It doesn't matter what the expression is on the person's face; it always seems hostile. I also find it very difficult to concentrate on their words if I also have to look at their face.

Yes, it would be easier.

I seem to relate to Asians and Africans the best of all cultures. I don't know why....

Both cultures don't like eye contact that much....

this was a signal to her that you like her romantically - looking into someone's (an NT's) eyes for that long is flirting behavior. it means "i like you and/or find you attractive"



haha I bet she did...



she will act differently in a good way. she "got happier when I looked at her" because she liked being flirted with and/or likes you too OR was just simply flattered by the flirting behavior.

At one time I felt an uneasiness & discomfort when making eye contact; say up until around 40.
This has left me now , but I still get distracted by it , its almost hypnotic and I lose my train of thought if im the one conversing.

I guess I'd have to pick make me cringe. There is an intense yucky feeling when I look into peoples eyes. Fleeting glances if they aren't looking at me I can manage, but as soon as they look at me... eeeeeeeeee yuck. I would rather look at the ground. I think I have managed to stare through people when I have to look at them, like say... my daughters IEP meeting at school. I knew I didn't want to appear rude, so I tried my best to pretend I was making eye contact. It was difficult not to zone off though since I tend not to listen as well while I'm looking in their direction.

Eye contact is like playing a game I'm unsure about. Inside I'm riddled with questions. Am I blinking at all? Enough? Too much? Oh boy I think I just blinked like 4 times in a row. Thats got to look weird. Am I showing I'm happy in my eyes enough? Is my expression appropriate? Can I look away? God this is taking too long. This is weird. Ugh. I feel exposed. I feel like I want to run and hide.

Uhm..
I guess I might cry. A lot of things make me cry, it's really stupid. I mean, I don't mind eye contact by itself and I guess I do it often enough like just here and there but I can't do it for too long while talking to someone or I might cry. XD;; But I might anyway, LOLz.

Nothing really happens except that I might lose my train of thought and start fumbling.

With me I think the problem comes down to a difficulty in switching between different "modes" of communication. There are at least two distinct modes, a "thinking" mode and an "expressing" mode. In the former mode most people don't make much eye contact while in the latter they do. Rapidly switching between the two modes is more tiring for me than it is for an NT so sometimes it's easier to just stay in thinking mode for long periods of time - thus less eye contact occurs. Does this make any sense?

I can't blink while talking to people and looking in their eyes. I have to look away, it's weird hahahaha.

Its not stupid to cry, there is probably a reason, you just don't know why yet

Years ago, there was someone I could NEVER look in they eye, not even for a second, because I would burst into tears. The person was really nice, not creepy or cruel and never said a bad word to me, but I always cried if I looked into his eyes.

"Cringe" might best describe my reaction to eye contact...It feels sexual if I look a person in the eye to long, man or woman, and it gets even weirder when it's your mom or dad or alone talking to a male friend... Awkward!

I have poor eyesight most days. I'm going to eventually get it fixed along with a number of other problems that I think are caused by the same source.

So this is what I do: I look at someone's hair, and mentally focus on that hair and block out their eyes. My poor eyesight helps with that. Unfortunately, some days my eyesight is a lot better than it usually is. This means that I have to keep my vision away from their eyes.

When someone makes eye contact with me, I feel as though they're raping my soul.

... best way I could describe the feeling. Pretty much, I guess it makes me paranoid. I feel like they can read into my mind or something. Or that they think my gaze is creepy. Or both.


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I sometimes fog them out by blurring my sight deliberately so it still look like I am looking at them