# Eye Contact Challenge



## Tongue Twisted (Mar 23, 2017)

I made a thread in the other section last week about really trying to make eye contact with strangers when walking past them outside, and thought it appropriate to post here due to my progress.

I feel really happy about the progress I've made. I no longer feel so uncomfortable looking people in the eye while walking past them. As a result, I feel better about myself and about other people -- they seem slightly less scary now. 

I still really struggle with looking at attractive people but am happy to look past that at the moment (even though I'm screaming inside to feast my eyes at their beautifullness ). It's still a work-in-progress but I'm just over the moon that I've improved.


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## Skitty Kitty (Apr 15, 2017)

Tongue Twisted said:


> I made a thread in the other section last week about really trying to make eye contact with strangers when walking past them outside, and thought it appropriate to post here due to my progress.
> 
> I feel really happy about the progress I've made. I no longer feel so uncomfortable looking people in the eye while walking past them. As a result, I feel better about myself and about other people -- they seem slightly less scary now.
> 
> I still really struggle with looking at attractive people but am happy to look past that at the moment (even though I'm screaming inside to feast my eyes at their beautifullness ). It's still a work-in-progress but I'm just over the moon that I've improved.


VERY brave. I'm really bad at eye contact with people, I'll either hide behind my hair or just pretend to look at my phone if I'm walking on the street. I've even done this when my phone is dead... I just pretend to read the blank screen and occasionally tap it to make it look like I'm doing something. I once had a little boy on the bus ask his mother loudly "why is that woman tapping her broken phone?" I almost died. I actually got off at the next stop (three stops away from home) and walked the rest of the way.


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## a degree of freedom (Sep 28, 2011)

That's great! 

In the meantime, to sate your eyes, Karlie Kloss is looking pretty fine on Bill Nye Saves the World. ^^


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## Tongue Twisted (Mar 23, 2017)

Skitty Kitty said:


> I once had a little boy on the bus ask his mother loudly "why is that woman tapping her broken phone?" I almost died. I actually got off at the next stop (three stops away from home) and walked the rest of the way.


Oh my god, that would kill me too! I would have done the same.



senkora said:


> That's great!
> 
> In the meantime, to sate your eyes, Karlie Kloss is looking pretty fine on Bill Nye Saves the World. ^^


Haha thanks. Never seen her before -- she has a beautiful face.


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## Raymond444 (Jul 28, 2017)

Hello i saw you're post and it similar interms of eye contact problems I have had anxiety for the last three years and since the first day I had a panic attack June 2014 I can't seem to make eye contact without my body flushing with adrenaline!i have had CBT helped a lot but not enough no matter what I do or shift my focus it does not help I have always been confident but lack of eye contact makes me come across as the opposite ! When I'm on the train or bus or in restaurant or standing in a group I don't know we're to gaze it's turning me insane how are u coping ?


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## I am Sisyphus Himself (Aug 25, 2017)

I applaud you for your progress; that's really great. 

Eye contact is honestly one of the scariest and most complicated things for me, because still don't understand when to give it or when not to, for how long, et cetera. I don't know what is considered generally appropriate to do with one's body while passing a stranger because there are so many paradoxes in social etiquette and everyone responds differently.

On one hand, some people maintain that it's rude when a stranger looks at them -PERIOD - because, it gives the impression that they're judging or staring the other person down. Often I'll try to make eye contact with someone passing or smile at a stranger and just get a grimace or a blank, confused stare as they pass. Very disheartening.

On the other hand, some people maintain it's rude or weird to NOT look at someone passing them, because it gives them the impression of being ignored or of the person passing them being a psycho.

Usually, when I pass someone and at first try not to make eye contact and then change my mind and glance up at them last second, I often find them looking at me as if they've been looking at me as of they've been looking at me. Not looking up to meet my last second attempt at eye contact, but just looking at me as if they'd been apprehensively looking at me the whole time.

I don't understand how people work, for real. Am I even actually human?


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