Saw someone other than stepfamily or a dr,council official etc- question at the end

firemonkey

Yesterday was the first day for over a year that I saw someone who 's neither stepfamily or someone like a doctor,council official etc. He's a parish councillor I follow on Twitter. I had tweeted about a constantly dripping washbasin tap, and he'd kindly offered to help. He couldn't fix it but was able to shut off the tap instead.

I discussed politics with him as we're both members of the Labour party. I didn't feel anxious or socially anxious . Indeed I felt quite confident . I wonder how many other autistic people are like that where the social anxiety etc takes a backseat when talking about a special interest/topic of interest.

Is that true for some of you?

Amity

Oh wow yes, for me its gardening, I wouldn't notice 2 hours passing by.

It makes the other person very relatable, a shared passion for something dwarfs any social challenges I might feel in this specific situation

verity

Done  lot of work on social anxiety but still struggle with official interactions and phone calls. I'm sometimes do ok if I'm in control of the timing and questions.  It is more spontaneous stuff.

Hylian

I have severe social anxiety and am too anxious to talk to anyone except the people in my family, including talking about my special interests.

darkcloak_dragon

firemonkey said:

I wonder how many other autistic people are like that where the social anxiety etc takes a backseat when talking about a special interest/topic of interest.

Is that true for some of you?

Not in my experience. I always have in the back of my mind that the people I'm talking to will never be as interested in the topic as I am, that they probably care a lot about how my face looks, how my voice sounds, etc. while I'm talking, that they are probably talking to me because of their unreciprocated social interest as much as, if not more than, because of their interest in the topic, so I still have plenty of social things to be concerned about. However, I do not like to call it "social anxiety" because the anxiety I feel at those times is perfectly realistic and appropriate, whereas social anxiety is a condition of excessive and unrealistic worries.

darkcloak_dragon

That last sentence of my previous comment wasn't supposed to be bolded.