Are You Averse to Crowds?

Post Reply New Topic

IDK. Maybe it was from the large groups at youth group, but whenever I am at a gathering, or even see a photo of a group of people hanging out, I just churn inside and change the photo. Or when I am in a crowd, I want to leave. Anyone feel like that? Or even seeing groups of people walking by. I cross to the other side. To me, groups are like the 4 horsemen of the apocalypses.

That's one of the basic requirements for membership in the Asperger Club.

Oddly, I'm okay in places like a mall at Christmastime, because I feel sealed off in a bubble of anonymity - none of those people care who I am and I don't have to interact with them socially, just dodge them like they were objects on an obstacle course. But if someone I know suddenly calls my name and expects to have a conversation, I collapse into a shutdown and can't speak.

I don't even like party or club scenes in movies. I can't even imagine why people think New York is such an exciting place. I'd rather kill myself than live in a place that crowded.

Not really. Crowds are nice because they give you a degree of anonymity and allow you to remain passive. Plus you can have fun screwing with people if you don't know anyone and the event isn't important.

I hate crowds. I take longer indirect routes at my school to avoid places people tend to socialize. I get very anxious when I have to walk through a crowded store (so I shop at odd times). I have no real solution other than avoidance.

However I am ok with small groups. Such as meeting 3ish people for a meal, or 6ish people to play board games, or my 5ish people Sunday School class. This is one reason I attend a relatively small church. I consider church to be important (and several people there know I have AS so I can avoid hugs, or if I need to escape to a quiet place), but big churches and big group/class sizes are hard for me.

Yes, I definitely avoid crowds. I go to lunch at one instead of noon to beat the crowds. I go shopping early in the morning on days likely not to have too many shoppers. And Friday on my way home from work, I had a truck behind me. I pulled off the road to let him by because I don't like anybody around me, though I'm sure he meant me no harm. I like being far removed from the crowds.

I avoid rowdy crowds, but I'm not bothered by passing through a group of people. As long as I don't have to worry about stumbling or being knocked over.

It depends. If there are a lot of people around, in a mall for an example, and I do not feel like I have to socialize with the people around me, I can feel calm and not nervous. If there is a group of people coming my direction, I can feel nervous just by looking at them because I feel like I have more pressure that a social interaction can occur between me and someone else. I never really think about why I am nervous by certain crowds, or why I am not nervous in other crowds. I just get a feeling of being nervous at the time. I tend to try to avoid being in crowded situations sometimes, though.

I guess with me, it is either being part of a crowd (gathering) or seeing a group of teens coming towards you on a sidewalk or such.

I do get nervous of walking past a crowd of people standing, especially if they are teenagers. I always get self-conscious, and feel like they are all watching me walk by and noticing every little thing about me. Thinking about this turns my ordinary walk into a stiff walk, and then I give off odd signals I don't normally give off when walking, and then I kind of expect them to shout out stupid things at me and show me up like I'm some sort of freak. I then get jealous of confident people who wouldn't get noticed by teenagers at all and who get left alone.

I know a lot of people who dislike walking past teenagers, but I get extra self-conscious about it.

I don't mind being in a crowd. I'm usually passing through on some mission or other, so I play a complicated private game in which I predict (from the individual movements of people in that area) where a space will appear, so that I can walk straight into a little 'calm zone', and while I'm walking into that brief and temporary space, I am already on the look out for the next one, and so on.

On a good day, I can get from one side of a crowded town centre to the other at a speed that would be reasonable if the town centre were completely empty of people, entirely by stepping into successive suddenly-appearing spaces, which then disappear as I am in the processing of entering the next suddenly-appearing space, and so on.

But if I get stuck in a dense crowd, I get very irritable. All those stupid people, milling back and forth!

My ideal relationship to a crowd is as an observer, perched in a coffee-shop window with an agreeable companion, making personal remarks and judgements about passing individuals that attract our amused attention.

I get very socially anxious in crowds. I feel weird in crowds(weird is the only way I could describe it because it's hard to explain), and sometimes I'm even afraid that people are noticing me.

no. I'm living in the boonies but I'm a city slicker at heart having lived in the city my whole life prior to this year. I sashay thru a crowd with the swagger of an overpimp. Not just any pimp. A pimp that pimps pimps. Nikkka

Fear of Crowds= Ochlophobia

Oh yeah. One time I went to NYC That is my hell.

I actually like being in large crowds, like at the mall, because it is anonymous and nobody expects anything from you. I can basically just blend in, drink a cup of coffee and relax.