No Outside Activity?

[Chicken&Tea]

My family keeps on asking me to go outside (when it isn't snowing) and they won't understand when I tell them I'm too nervous to go! My grandparents and uncle (I live with them) keep on pestering me about it and yell at me, saying that I don't try hard enough to get rid of my anxiety...

Do you have any techniques to go outside? I get all stiff and scared when I see someone and my thoughts run amok, I'm not sure I can do it. Thank you!

 

[Judge]

Sometimes you just have to tell yourself you need to move and start with one foot and then the other. To get out for the sake of getting out.

You might just take short walks in the neighborhood, which don't need to involve any social contacts. I push myself to have brief and unimportant interactions with supermarket clerks...just for the practice. And once a month attend a club meeting and try to interact with others in a friendly, non-threatening environment. Otherwise the only social contact I have is with my cousin and her two dogs...which doesn't happen a lot outside the summer months.

 

[Turk]

Id start with short walks, at a time of day, when its least busy outside. Keep your eyes focused downwards, to limit eye contact. Something I use as well, is an ipod. People see that thing in your ears and they dont even bother. As you become use to the outside environment, you can ease up on the distractions.

 

[BOLD Mark]

My family keeps on asking me to go outside (when it isn't snowing) and they won't understand when I tell them I'm too nervous to go! My grandparents and uncle (I live with them) keep on pestering me about it and yell at me, saying that I don't try hard enough to get rid of my anxiety...

Do you have any techniques to go outside? I get all stiff and scared when I see someone and my thoughts run amok, I'm not sure I can do it. Thank you!

Would it make you less nervous if someone went with you? If so, ask one of the people "pestering" you to help you by going with you someplace chill, like a library or mall or movie or park...they would take you asking as a compliment, I bet, and you can explain why them going with you could help and that maybe then you'll be better able to do this on your own someday (not right away, though!)

Also, when you see someone outside, they probably don't even notice you or pay you much mind...all people are more concerned with themselves than random strangers, there is no conspiracy to "everyone look at that person!" and make you feel oddly...while this is a frequent concern for some, act like you know what you are doing and let people have their own thoughts, which probably don't concern you at all! Or are you that fascinating and entrancing that the world just can't ignore you? ;-)

 

[Ylva]

Tell your co-habitants that their yelling isn't exactly helping on your anxiety and that if it is exposure therapy they want you to have, you get quite enough of that inside, thank you very much. (Phrase it more diplomatically, though. You are going to live with those people.)

I'll go outside if I can read (it's a very location-independent activity) or with my dog, who is small and does walk on for miles and miles.

 

[neuroillogic]

The best way I started to kind of socialize was kind of like what Turk said, walking around not looking at anyone and listening to music. I had to take a two hour bus ride to work at that time, every day for two years, and while you can generally be ignored while walking around town, doing so on a bus in downtown CA? Not a chance. It was too hectic for me to focus on anything I wanted to do, like read, so I often just sat there 'looking bored' apparently. Which invited a lot of people over to talk to me, but as I had my music going, the question was usually "What are you listening to?" Which is a simple answer, I didn't even have to think about it, I just had to read off my screen. That usually led to me being pretty uncomfortable for a while trying to carry on a conversation about my music or dealing with them leaning close enough to hear it - but at the end of the day it opened up a lot of doors that I never would have even seen on my own. After two years on the same routes, I made a lot of really odd friends (because, it seems, most 'normal' people drive to work. Go figure) and I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. Sure, it was a little scary, but a LOT less scary that the social situations NTs tried to talk me into doing in the past. I didn't have to reach out of my bubble, and if anyone happened to step into it, it wasn't overwhelming since I was used to the environment and was around a lot of the same people most of the time, so I was a little more in my element.

 

[Salmongirl17]

I'm one if those people who could live outside... I hate being indoors.

 

[Peace]

My family keeps on asking me to go outside (when it isn't snowing) and they won't understand when I tell them I'm too nervous to go! My grandparents and uncle (I live with them) keep on pestering me about it and yell at me, saying that I don't try hard enough to get rid of my anxiety...

Do you have any techniques to go outside? I get all stiff and scared when I see someone and my thoughts run amok, I'm not sure I can do it. Thank you!

Going outside should not require seeing people. If it does, you must live in a really small town. I would start off in a safe place and get used to the idea first, weather it is going outside or seeing people. If you cannot establish a comfort zone by starting from the ground and working your up, then you may not be cut out for such things, which is OK. I always seem to have trouble being accepted, even by those closest to me.

 

[Nick12]

I'm one if those people who could live outside... I hate being indoors.

me to i dont like being indoors and home all day i like being outside doing fun things by my self or with the best best mom i have