Do you have any really weird avoidance behaviors?

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For example, to avoid feeling hurt or rejected....or simply to avoid being around a person or group of people.....have you done anything really, really strange, that you have told no one?

Here's a list of mine:

-I lived with my cousin for a while, and she had visitors (friends) that came over to our house from time to time. Anyway, I'm so shy that I couldn't leave the house until they were gone, but they came while I was in the bathroom. I wanted to go out on an errand but had to wait until they left!! So I tried to get as ready as I could to leave the house but didn't have a comb to comb my hair......but there were toothpicks in the bathroom cabinet, so I used those to comb my hair!! !! !!

-In high school, I was in a class that sat in a circle. For some reason, the speaker (teacher) gave everyone eye-contact but me. It hurt my feelings so bad that I wore sunglasses (to cover up the fact that i could never look him in the eye again).

Would packing a bag and hopping a bus to go live in a different city without telling anyone count?

I close my eyes if forced to look at someone in the face. I wasn't even aware of this behaviour until a few days ago...

I frequently hide from people, even sometimes at work.

The two different parts of the building I work in is connected by a looooong, mostly straight corridor.
If two people enter the corridor at opposite ends at the same time they will be walking straight at each other for a long time before actually meeting up.
I've been working here for 3+ years, but I still haven't figured out when to look up and greet someone in that f*****g corridor...

To avoid family I set up a little bench area behind my clothes in my bedroom closet and had snacks, books and a flash light back there. For a couple years somewhere between 16 and 20 years old I'd leave my bedroom door partially open so that anyone looking for me could peek in the room and think I wasn't there, it never happened but if they looked in the closet they would have just seen clothes too but I was really back there reading.

Edit: And when I was smaller I spent a lot of time under my bed.

As a child I pretended to be asleep to avoid having to talk (in familiy parties etc.). As an adult, I've locked doors and pretended to not be home, or asleep, not answering the phone. If my wife gets visitors, and I know about it, I often take the laptop up to our bedroom to watch a movie, or just read or surf the web until they leave. At work I hide at the bathroom to avoid people.

I have social anxiety, so I might have more avoidance techniques than the average joe.

Last edited by Blownmind on 11 Jul 2012, 2:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

*I remember how my family along with several other families went on a vacation together during Spring Break. There were other kids around my age there, people I was familiar too, but I did not feel right when trying to socialize with them. Rather I would feel really sad and empty, so when everyone was playing snowball fight with each other, I ran away into the woods, laid down in the snow, and admired the snow.

My parents freaked out and started yelling my name, and told me to go play with the other kids instead when they found me. I still ran back into the woods.
I also remember how when two other people also took the some path into the woods I did, I ran down the mountain and hit behind a huge rock until they left.

*I also remembered how I had this one best friend. She was really nice to me, but I thought we were growing apart because she was popular and had lots of other friends who seemed to be better at socializing than I was. To avoid being hurt, I made gradually made another very close friend and hung out with her and the other girls in this one class we had together instead. I ended up being left out all the time with those girls, and it turned out that my best friend had really liked being with me in the end...
I'll stop the story there, it's quite long.

Sometimes I look for reasons to end friendships with people just because I'm afraid of being hurt by them in the future. A couple of times when I've gone to apologize to people for this behavior, they've told me that I had made them cry. It makes me feel like a terrible person, but I'm bad about getting involved in friendships that are too hard for me to keep.

I like to take walks outside, and I always try to make sure that there ain't that many people around before I leave. If by chance I do see a person, I instantly start walking in the opposite direction to avoid them. I did this once when I saw the man who lives next to me (father's cousin) and he told my mom, and she complained about me being an easily flustered mess.

When I was younger if people came over my house I would lock myself in my bedroom and not come out until they left. Once I was thirsty and had nothing to drink but I couldn't call my mother to get my something or the people would hear me so I opened up one of my rat's water bottles and drank from that.

Wow that's terrible. My lips bleed if I go too long without water, so if there are guest at my house I end up forcing myself to go downstairs and get a drink. The other day I was so nervous around the guest that I ended up tripping over some shoes on the floor and spilling my water, it was humiliating.

Yeah. Big time. I just can never tell if it's worth the risk, so I play it safe. Too intense, too remote, I never saw that neutral gear.

That sounds horrendous. I have similar, but more minor issues with what sounds like a much shorter corridor where I work. It doesn't bother me too much usually, but occasionally if I need to go down it I'll come round the corner, see someone I find awkward approaching, and dart off in the opposite direction. Then I have to find somewhere to hide until I know they've left the corridor, at which point I can u-turn and go down it. There's a dark little vestibule nearby in which I've spent many a minute watching shadows and listening to doors clang to try and figure out if the coast is clear.

Nothing really weird in my opinion, though mainstreamers may have a different view.

I gave up what many people would have described as a good career because I didn't like feeling stressed out all the time or being pushed around by people in high places who don't really care about my well-being. I'm about to give up another "good" career for similar reasons (though the symptoms aren't so marked this time) and because I don't feel I should have to work for an employer beyond the age of 60.

I avoid risking rejection, especially public rejection. I'm very reluctant to invite people to anything, wouldn't hold a party for fear of nobody turning up, would only make the first moves with a woman if I knew I could credibly go into denial or somehow withdraw all vulnerability at the drop of a hat. If there's a music event that might want floor spots, I won't take my guitar along because they might not want me to perform, and I wouldn't want it to be obvious that I'd wanted to play.

In relationships I often avoid asking about their opposite-sex friends in case I hear something I don't like and it turns into a suspicious interrogation. So I'll usually just keep quiet and/or make my own inquiries. One partner had an ex who was texting her way too much, but until I was sure he'd stepped well over the line, I wouldn't ask "is that him again?" I'd ask "is that your mum?" to disguise my true concerns. What I seem very keen to avoid is being labelled paranoid or possessive, I guess because once that label is stuck onto me, it detracts from my credibility if I later have to ask any legitimate questions on the subject.

I avoid pushing people around.........I fear suggesting people do this or that, because it makes me feel like I'm bullying them. So I might mildly suggest an option but I'll make sure everybody knows it's no biggie f they don't want to do it........as if I'm avoiding any possibility of influencing people.

I avoid ogling women when they aren't wearing much. It used to be called "being a gentleman" but these days I gather it's just seen as weird.

I avoid showing anger, especially when it's fresh and intense. When I feel like that I just get away from the people who have provoked me........if I do well, I'll work out what happened and try to resolve things with them after a few days.

I avoid stressful situations......wouldn't want to live on welfare because there would be this constant wolf at the door, the gov would always be trying to deny me the payments and making me feel insecure. Would rather be partnerless than have a relationship in which I felt there was a significant risk of losing them, like if they were flirting with other men or risking their own lives. I work very hard to eliminate risks that most people would probably just tolerate. I can take risks for a short time if the rewards are worth it, but never as a way of life.

I remember at the charity shop what I used to volunteer at I was upstairs on my own for a bit (the store room was upstairs too), and as I was sorting out clothes up there I heard a voice say, ''excuse me, anyone in here?'' and I could tell it was a customer wanting to ask something, so I quickly ran round the corner to hide before she saw me, so that by the time she peeped right in, she could not see me anywhere. I was actually hiding behind a pile of boxes. Although I felt like 6 years old doing this, but I really did not feel like facing customers that day.

Oh, and also, when I first started volunteering at this charity shop and was left alone on the till, I pretended to be Polish to some of the customers so that I could get away with being socially awkward without being considered weird, but I obviously couldn't do this when the manager came down, so I had to knock it on the head otherwise I'd have to keep going from being Polish to being English, and that would make customers think I'm even more weird, so.....

Heh. When my parents had people over a few times I snuck out the window to go pee round the back of the house.