Social Success

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Hi everyone, I just thought I would share something...

I have some aspergers and have always struggled socially, whether it be talking to strangers(especially in groups) or even my closest friends. This is probably why I tend to seem like a shy guy and don't have many friends and people to hang out with during the day. When i attempt to socialize in groups, I am always on the outside and often don't know what to contribute to a conversation, so I am not really included in the group. However tonight I was feeling good and decided to just go for it and join some acquaintances/friends at a table during a social event at my residence, and found myself talking easily to them and I actually felt included. I still was a bit quiet and just listened sometimes but I still talked pretty well with them and joked around with them, and felt I made progress!(I have made this sort of progress before but it happens rare, and usually on other occasions I tune out socially). What do you guys think of this? I definetely should do this more though, just jumping in and being more brave. I also just felt like sharing this too since I am so happy! Also I find it weird but I tend to be more social and confident in the night time, especially when I'm feeling tired. During the day, I'm kind of like your average socially awkward dude lol.

I became talkative through entactogens, once it was quite funny how someone who's normally the gregarious one was totally silent due to a dissociative and I was the opposite, like for a few hours we switched places.

That's really cool! It sounds like you and your friends/acquaintances had fun. I can totally psych myself out of socializing if I'm not careful. I imagine all the paths that conversations could go down, am I prepared for each eventuality, how will I excuse myself if I get tired, how will I handle awkward questions??? A I can talk myself right out of participating. But most often people are just looking for conversation and chuckles, and it's not really that hard to listen and ask a question about what is said or to point out something funny. It tends to get hard when I get lost in my autistic mind worrying about how things might go and then get self-conscious. I hope you're able to keep up with the social interactions - it gets easier and builds confidence. I wonder if it's easier at night because we can sort of lower expectations of ourselves or if we get quiet we can just say we're a bit tired.