Recently diagnosed and in my 30s. I’ve always felt like everybody else have received a user manual that I’ve never gotten. A user manual on how to be human and how to interact with other humans. It’s especially interacting with people that trigger my anxiety. I explained this to my psychologist. Her initial response was that I didn’t seem like I had any issues interacting with her, so either that wasn’t true or I’m just really good at pretending. Now I’m sitting here, going over what she said, second guessing myself, and I just don’t know. This was relatively early on in my session, so I think she understood my anxiety later on. She definitely opened my eyes regarding being more aware of my own needs.
I don’t know. Now I just have this nagging feeling of maybe I’m faking my anxiety in regards to socializing.
That comment did segway in to her asking me whether or not I have any ideas of why and when I felt the need to mask, and other than that one comment I did not feel uncomfortable talking to her as a psychologist. I did feel uncomfortable due to it being a social interaction with another human being. But she didn’t make me feel like I am wrong for not wanting to make eye contact. She didn’t make me feel wrong for not liking last minute changes. She was accepting of the fact that I have different needs. Needs I didn’t know I have. I think my brain - being as wonderful as always - zoomed in on a comment and just ran with it. She probably could have worded it better, though.