# Dog Walking



## redbird44 (May 5, 2013)

Wow I can't believe I just went outside in the daytime (usually I will never do this unless absolutely necessary, or for work....) I have a fear of people looking at me.

Anyway... I have a dog. Usually the kids have to walk him in the daytime and I walk him in the dark. Today I just decided this is silly and I made a plan. It worked. Here are my tips:

- I went early in the morning (Sunday) without even having a shower. That way if I looked like my hair wasn't perfect people would realize "Hey, it's Sunday morning, she just got up to walk the dog". It seemed easier than washing and styling my hair and then people might say "Is that the best her hair can look?"

- I wore really big sunglasses so no eye contact.

- When I saw another person in the distance it was pretty easy to just turn around and go the other way (It looked like my dog had changed direction, not like I was avoiding people).

- I could also bend down and pretend to be patting the dog or re-arranging the leash so that I wouldn't have to look at people passing

- When people did come fairly close to me I would just keep my distance and pull my dog the other way. It looked like I was just trying to keep the dogs apart from each other, which is pretty polite because some people don't like their dogs jumping all over other people's dogs.

Overall I would give my 20 minute dog walk experience an A-.

I don't think I could do it in the afternoons after work though, because people would expect my hair and clothes to be much nicer at that time of day.


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## redbird44 (May 5, 2013)

Oh... one more thing I forgot!!!!

Every time I saw a person, I told myself that THEY had social anxiety and that it was their first time outside too. It made me feel a little compassionate toward them. Behind my sunglasses I would look at them and decide on something about THEM that I didn't like (e.g., wow, that guys shoes are really old). It's not that I want to think negatively or be critical but it took my mind off of what they might be thinking about me.


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## Cileroot (Mar 6, 2012)

redbird44 said:


> Oh... one more thing I forgot!!!!
> 
> Every time I saw a person, I told myself that THEY had social anxiety and that it was their first time outside too. It made me feel a little compassionate toward them. Behind my sunglasses I would look at them and *decide on something about THEM that I didn't like* (e.g., wow, that guys shoes are really old). *It's not that I want to think negatively or be critical *but it took my mind off of what they might be thinking about me.


This applies to large majority of people. People do not want to be negative and are not. With SAD we assume that everyone is the enemy. I'm sure lots of people would have to specifically search for something they would not like about you.

But it's great that you decided to take the first step in overcoming your fear. I would suggest taking things further with every week. For example from beginning of week 2 you stop turning around when you see someone approaching...then week 4 you stop pretending to re-arrange the leash and so on. Eventually you will be able to walk among other people and even make some kids happy who would like to pet your dog


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## jais (Sep 15, 2012)

redbird44 said:


> I could also bend down and pretend to be patting the dog or re-arranging the leash so that I wouldn't have to look at people passing


haha! I do this all the time:teeth


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## misspeachy (Aug 11, 2011)

Good plan!


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