Paranoia anyone?

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Do you guys tend to get paranoid about whether or not you've upset someone, or suspicious why people change their attitudes towards you? I'm hoping this is part of being an Aspie. . .(or maybe everyone has this problem occasionally--I probably tend to worry about it more than most though since I've had such a bad track record with coworkers)

Hmm, so today I'm feeling exceptionally paranoid about my co-workers. I like and trust almost all six of them. There is only one that hates me and I do not trust at all (because she is extremely two-faced, and then accused me of backstabbing her--which I think i may have done, but it wasn't out of malice, I was trying to help people get along--little did I know, then, that I am definitely not the person to do so). Well this morning when I came in, she was talking to another coworker, so i didn't do my normal thing which is to say "good morning" out loud to anybody in the area. The lady that dislikes me yelled "Good Morning, Nichole!" as I walked by. This makes me very suspicous since she usually doesn't acknowledge me. Also the coworker she was talking to, whom i like very much, has been very irritable lately. The problem is that, unfortunately, I can't tell if it is just me or if it is work in general--work is not going well for all of us since we are losing funding and people.
I also think that while I don't know why people are upset with me, I am at least fairly good at picking up *when* people are upset (in general or with me).
So yeah, now I'm all paranoid that they were talking about me, or at the very least, maybe I have been getting on people's nerves since they are all stressed out. . .
What about you guys?

Why do you ask? Who have you spoken to? What did they say about me?

I needed that. . .

Yes. I'm good at worrying about whether I've upset people. I can spend a great amount of time thinking about it.

I think the keyword here is "worry", you worry and wonder why people are irritated/angry at/towards you. Are they angry or irritated? Is it with you or the problems at work? It seems perfectly normal to think about. Things are tense at work, you say, and the fear of unemployment can get everyone edgy.

I experienced a trauma, nearly two years ago and afterwards I had this moments when I got scared that it could happen again who where very close to paranoia, but I still could controll them.
In the beginning I had them nearly very day, but now it is getting better since a fiew weeks.

But that's not really the same as your experience I guess.

Usually I'm not the person who tends to get paranoid thoughts.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

For real though, I couldn't say if they were talking about you or not. Possibly so, but then again the one who doesn't like you may have yelled what she did to try and make fun of you for saying good morning every day. She may have just been being a b***h.

I'd say, just disregard her except when you have to deal directly with her. By this I don't mean the whole "ignore them and they will stop" kind of thing we all heard as kids. Actually, you need to pay some attention to what she's doing and where she is, because by "disregard her" I mean show her outright disregard. Not to the point of animosity, but make it a point to let her see you ignoring her, or passing over her for something while including everyone else. Make sure she doesn't see you noticing her though. You can't really say something smart alec at work without causing problems, but you can do this. Act like you don't care that she's there. Of course you notice her because you can look right at her for a second then turn to someone else ignoring her completely. If she brings it up, answer with a polite, "Oh, I didn't notice I was doing that." and a small smile which may or may not look sincere. You want to throw her off balance now.

I am constantly paranoid..all the time.

I'm incredibly paranoid about how I treat others. I'm very self conscientious about it, I worry if I beg too much or anything, and I get paranoid that people are mad at me because I've annoyed them. I worry constantly that I'm not doing a good enough job, or that I've gotten on the bad side of people or things like that, and it's hard to know for sure because I noticed a lot of people really don't tell you how they feel about you to "be nice", which only makes me worry more.

At work I get paranoid that the customers think I'm acting strangely, oddly, or insufficient for my job. I work at Chuck E. Cheese's and believe me that's hard work with those kids all the time, and parents have a short fuse, so I'm always paranoid that I'll tick one of them off by getting too blunt with one of their little "angels" (of Hell, apparently). You tick them off, they're going to rip you to little shreds. Because of that, I worry a lot about my job.

I'm paranoid that people think I'm acting too "attention-seeking". I really worry about that one since I personally hate it when people try to milk whatever to get attention. I always try to keep my head low to avoid that.

I also get paranoid with checking things, I compulsively check to make sure I have everything. I worry that I don't have my stuff.

I feel a lot like I'm balancing my life on a tightrope all the time. I even worry that a bridge will collapse while I'm driving under it, or that a chandelier will fall. When I was little I was horrified by the idea of a tornado striking at night and because of that I was incredibly paranoid, often missing sleep or being awoken in the middle of the night by the slightest disturbance, believing that it was the tornado's doing.

I think I worry too much.

This sound just like me.
Do you hate it when someone stand next to you in the shopping aisle and looks at same products?

I hate it when a stranger is near me doing anything that might be related to what I'm doing, period. Heck, I hate it when my own parents are watching over me, or even in the same room while I'm cooking! It's a bit of a problem to say the least.

Yes though sometimes its hard to tell when I am just being paranoid, or when I actually should be distrustful of someone. But yeah for example say like I text my brother, sister, cousin or someone else to see if they want to hang out or something and then they don't text back. Then I might think they are mad at me and wonder what I did to piss them off when really they are just busy or something came up and it had nothing to do with me.

I hesitated writing this post in the first place, but I am glad I did. Thanks you guys!! This has been very helpful and encouraging!

Raziel--I don't know what kind of trauma you had, but when that whole back-stabbing thing went down, I was pretty traumatized. I had no idea that, in real life, people actually conciously manipulate someone else (I thought that only happened in fiction). But after that event I was very cautious about who I would talk to in general because I *was* concerned that I couldn't tell if someone was just trying to get information out of me, or if they genuinely wanted to talk.

OliveOilMom and Blownmind--you guys are right. I know people are stressed and it might be just that, and also that maybe they were talking about me. I actually don't care what people think about me, but I do care if I hurt people that I like and trust. Since I don't know for sure if people are just stressed in general or if I have ticked them off (perhaps on top of being stressed in general) I think I'll lay low for awhile. . .

I have a fear of talking to group of people that I don't know personally.

I usually don't, but I get really awkward after starting a conversation and get so embarrassed that I worry to even talk to them again.

corvuscorax and davidgolfpro--you guys might want to check and make sure you don't have generalized anxiety disorder (my first diagnosis--turns out it is just part of the AS). Once I got medicated for that (and actually I may have to increase my meds again--I've been on several SSRIs over the years--and now a mood stabilizer--and these newest ones have worked very well until the last few months, but I am on low doses of both, sorry as I was saying. . .) Once i got medicated for the generalized anxiety disorder (with Lexapro) my life completely changed for the better. I was worried about everything prior to that, everything, it was horrible. Actually i have had a lot more to *worry* about lately with the whole figuring out I'm an Aspie, so maybe my anxiety is overcoming my medication threshold as it is. . .anyways, I know how distressing life can be when you have anxiety like that and if I can help somebody else escape that feeling that makes me happy.