What's the name of this symptom?

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Is there a psychiatric term for the extreme form of introversion that characterizes autism?

I think that I have a version of this and that it's what makes being aware of my surroundings so tiring and unnatural-feeling.

Does anyone else experience a lot of stress/fatigue while using public transportation because you have to continually pay attention to your surroundings so that you don't miss your stop, don't get on the wrong bus, don't lose track of the time/schedule, or don't have the driver pass you by (because you don't "look" like you want to board while you're at the bus stop. Like you have to make sure you aren't wandering around the stop or looking away from the approaching bus)?

Most of the time I go with my girlfriend & I sort of let her lead so it's not really stressful for me. The few times I took a bus by myself weren't stressful because I knew the route & where to stop. About the only time it is stressful for me is when the bus is crowded & I have to stand amongst others or I'm sitting & others are standing rite next to me. it also bothers me when the buses are loud. One doc report about that says it's claustrophobia , another says it's agoraphobia but I suspect it's social anxiety. Either way I take Klonopin when I go out if there's a chance I'll ride a crowded bus & that helps.

"Agoraphobia"?

Maybe that's the word you're looking for (for being afraid of going out into the wide world).

I think this comes down to receiving so much sensory input/information. I'm fortunate I can drive, because public transportation scares me for the reasons you described. Even driving can get pretty stressful. I feel like I don't really block out information. If my mind is a computer, it's always trying to run 3-5 programs. I think to the outsider, I might look "stupid" or "lazy" if I had trouble with public transportation. But, they wouldn't know that I'd probably find the schedule at least a little confusing (especially without pictures...I'd have to keep repeating to myself the stop name during the whole trip), plus all the distractions in and outside of the bus. Not to mention trying to appear normal and not easily distracted so I don't attract the wrong kind of person on the bus. I'd probably be less stressed out if I learned how to take apart and put together a transmission.

I feel if NTs understood how NDs deal with sensory information, and how taxing it is, it would explain a lot of ND behavior to them. I can be at a meeting for work with a couple people who seem kind of loud, and between that and the wrong kind of lighting it will make it physically hard for me to speak. Like my throat muscles are a little too tight. But, to them I just seem shy, or like I don't care, or whatever.

I think the more of a boundary you create between you and outside stimulation the better you can function. At least in my experience. Unfortunately, that can be tricky on a city bus.

I don't have sensory issues, but I do get stressed waiting for the bus to arrive - I spend the time trying to work out whether I've missed the one I wanted or its just late, and if I see a bus going the other way, whether that is my bus and if so how long it will take to turn back this way, and all the permutations of possible bus arrival times with respect to whether I'll be late to where I'm going, and what I'm going to say to the person I'm meeting if I'm late, and so on and so on - until I get a bit wound up.
I usually pace a lot and listen to music on my phone, which seems to help.

Name for this?
Probably a combination of the usual suspects: dislike of uncertainty / changes in schedule, catastrophising, repetitive thoughts, mental scripting of conversations, emotional dysregulation...

Sounds like a processing issue to me. My visual processing skills are really bad, and I well understand the feeling you describe. When I'm in places that force me to process a lot of information, I become physically exhausted quickly. I have to fight to keep my eyes open and my limbs feel heavy. It makes it rather difficult to go places on my own, at least for prolonged periods. Having another person there, letting them sort through most of the information for me and following their lead, is such a relief. This kind of difficulty, coupled with anxiety over the thought of "missing" important information and messing up, could understandably cause the discomfort you express.

Is it a symptom?

I am not afraid of getting public transport. I get buses all the time. I can look out for the bus without any problems when waiting at a bus stop, and I can read bus schedules and I know where to get off, if I'm not sure I just ask the driver or take a wild guess. There are one or two things that make me anxious on a bus, like if it's held up in traffic or if it's too crowded or there are loud screaming brats. But I'm still confident with getting buses alone. I've been getting buses independently for over 11 years.

I've never got a train on my own, and I would be rather nervous doing this, as whenever I've got the train with others it always seemed to be confusing where to wait. But then again I've not got much experience getting trains, so things you've never tried alone are always daunting until you've tried it. Before I started getting buses alone I never imagined I would cope getting buses alone. Now it's like second nature.

Maybe my post was confusing because I was talking about two different things. Do you know how people say that autistic people are "stuck inside themselves"? That's what I'm trying to name: being extremely inward-focused.

It's a real pain in the tushey when you don't get a seat.

I don't particularly like crowds, either.

Agoraphobia
Generalized anxiety disorder
Possibly sensory processing disorder

If the inward thing you are focusing on is a continuing train of thought or story you are telling yourself, it could be something called maladaptive daydreaming. If you can't focus in general, just scattered and "away with the fairies" a lot, then it might be ADHD inattentive type.

AFAIK there's no particular term for it, apart from it being the kind of stuff that probably happens to a lot of people with ASD. Hyperfocus makes it hard do anything else while watching for the stop to get off at, then there's often a difficulty in navigating, black & white thinking and perfectionism could cause undue anxiety about missing the stop and being late. Getting on the wrong bus can be a serious mistake for anybody, but as long as you know the bus number and the bus displays it properly, that's unlikely to happen. Sometimes I ask the driver to confirm it's going to my destination, I usually hate asking for info, but they're usually quite helpful with that question. Where I live, the convention for signalling the driver to stop and let you on board is to stick out your arm horizontally - obviously taking care not to get it knocked by passing traffic. Years ago the convention was just to move forward to the edge of the kerb and face the arriving bus.

It's never perfect. I've known them to just drive past regardless, which is breaking the rules unless the bus is completely full, but it happens. I've fallen foul of the problem of not signalling in time. I was in a town I don't visit much, trying to catch a bus I'd never caught before on a road I wasn't familiar with. I was already late, having had trouble finding the stop. The road had tall buildings along it and was curved to either side of the stop such as to make it impossible to see the approaching bus until it was pretty close, and no bus arrived at the time I'd figured it was due. After a further 10 minutes or so I checked my written information, and at that very moment the right bus sped round the corner. I flagged it down but got a sarcastic rebuke from the driver for not doing that quicker. I would have argued but I needed his help to tell me when to get off, as it was dark and I was going to a town I'd not been to before. I felt angry at being misconstrued and frustrated at not feeling able to set him straight, and pretty stressed out with the whole travelling experience. But it wore off. I'd had the presence of mind to ask him what had happened to the previous bus, in an attempt to get him on the backfoot and get it through his head that it might not be all my fault, but all I got back was a dismissive "I haven't a clue."

I'll be wiser about the landscape etc. if I ever have to go there again. I often take maps and a compass with me because I get lost easily. I have comprehension and memory problem with directions and soon lose my bearings. Maps are useful but it's hard for me to relate the map view to what I see from the ground. They also say it's easy to become a target for muggers if you're constantly looking at maps and showing everybody that you're unfamiliar with the surroundings.

Maybe it should be called "buslexia." I don't know if that inward-looking thing is anything to do with it in my case. I don't hold much with psych labels and medicalising my issues, I'm more at home with a description of the ragbag of details surrounding a particular problem in negotiating the world, and occasionally I see a recurring pattern that tells me I have an impairment in some or other kind of task, and that's about all the reductionism I can manage.

The amount of people and all the garbage they project that I can't filter out is what makes public transportation overstimulating for me. Also, it stresses me out when the bus or train doesn't come when expected. If I know I have a 12 minute wait, I'm fine. If it says it's coming in 2 minutes but it actually takes 8, I get anxious.

Our bus system is a bit better than yours ToughDiamond. The buses display the bus number but it's rite before the name of it's final destination before the bus turns around. The buses also are supposed to stop if anyone is waiting at the stop. You just have to look like their waiting for the bus & be standing near the curb so the bus can see you.

^ our buses have the same thing with the number to the left of the destination name. The bus might stop if I look like I'm waiting for it, but it rather depends on the driver. I think they started the "arm out" rule to reduce the confusion about what constitutes a clear signal in case passengers complained. I was once on a bus way out in a rural part of Cornwall where the driver stopped and waited for no apparent reason. When asked why, he replied that a lady who lived in a nearby house usually caught the bus there, and figuring she might be a little late getting out, he was going to wait a few minutes just to be sure. That's what I call a decent service, though it was a very long time ago and I expect they're not so considerate now.

Autism isn't characterised by extreme introversion; the defining characteristic of autism in this respect is a qualitative rather than a quantitative impairment in socialisation. This of course doesn't preclude the possibility of somebody on the spectrum being introverted, but it's not necessary.

Moving on to your main point, I have to say that I, for one, love using public transport, provided conditions aren't too busy and so forth. I'm not terribly keen on buses, but I could ride on trains and airplanes (if they count) all day.