Eye Contact

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What do you feel when you have to look at a stranger in the eyes? Or anyone for that matter?

It varies. I can look my wife in the eye with no difficulties at all, although I do realise that my timing and duration compared to "normal" is probably off, but it doesn't feel awkward or wrong in any way. To a degree, it's easier with familiarity, progressing from feeling a bit off and not knowing when is appropriate, to it feeling uncomfortable (raised heart rate, generally low level anxious response) through to with strangers, superiors or people I don't particularly like where I actually feel pain, like a sort of stabbing headache in a specific point in my brain if I maintain eye contact (yeah, that makes job interviews great fun).

I feel awkward and tend to blush (especially if the other person points out some problem with my eye contact). Usually I can look my immediate family in the eye normally enough without any problems, though. With strangers or people I'm uncomfortable with I can't make eye contact well, and I often avoid even looking at their face.

I usually look someone in the eye briefly, but not for a long amount of time. If someone is talking to me and saying something important, i will look away but make a strong 'hearing' face. I usually overexaggerate my facial expressions anyways. For me it is distracting when i look someone in the eye for long because i cannot focus on what they are saying. I am too locked on the eyes.

I have no problem with eye contact. I can look at anyone straight up.

It's not so bad. I haven't been turned to stone just yet - rubber at best.

I don't look at people when I'm talking; I only look people in the eyes when I'm comfortable with them, I still look away when I talk to them however.

Looking people in the eyes and talking to them is kinda like reciting Nietzsche's take on "nature", word for word, writing a parable that's pertinent for a few thousand years, calculating the energy released when Eta Carinae went up, and then sticking a needle in your eye, all at once. That about sums it up.

You don't have to look strangers in the eye.

So, I don't.

I'm only comfortable with a second or so at a time, only if I know it's expected, like when I'm being introduced. Otherwise I don't look at all. Even with my friends and family it's a conscious effort, especially if I'm doing the talking. Partway through the story or explanation or whatever, I'll usually remember by then because they are looking at me, and I know it makes them feel better when I look back.

I can make eye contact, I just don't like it. Therefore I don't make eye contact with strangers. With my family and friends it's quite ok, and when someone's talking to me directly in the office, I usually just stare into their eyes, because I know they're expecting eye contact. Only I don't know when to look away, so it's kinda awkward sometimes, but actually, I don't care.

I also tend to make eye contact either by accident or because I know it's expected...not so much that I know but that it's instinctual that they expect it. Like when I feel someone's eyes on me when I'm sitting somewhere, I do NOT look up, but if I know who it is who's staring, which in some odd way i do, and it's a friend, I look up and smile, or make eye contact depending on the situation. otherwise I try not to. I also tend to look away from people when I'm talking because keeping eye contact makes me feel like they're waiting for me to flub my words or say something stupid. plus, I also see the eyes as the windows to the soul, and I never feel comfortable letting someone else have such a clear view of that either, lol.