Anxiety Looking Game

Do you ever feel like people are staring at you? Of course we all look at each other when in public, but do you ever feel like everyone is looking at you as you walk past them? I still get this feeling even though I understand that in the whole scheme of things I’m not that special.

I was in Costco (super discount store) the other day and felt like everybody was checking me out. Although my rational mind told me that no one in that entire building was all that interested in me in particular, I swore that they were. This is uncomfortable because it makes you feel like you can’t relax, but then I thought that this is exactly why I felt that way. My anxiety makes me (and you) feel self conscious sometimes and with that comes all kinds of insecurity.

Anxiety disorder has a way of zapping your self image and self esteem. It is very easy to have a pity party for yourself when you feel nervous all the time. So with my anxiety fully intact I kept walking through the store but had a change of mind after about 10 minutes of walking through the ginormous aisles . So I told myself the obvious and acted like I should have – like no one was looking at me. After a few minutes the sensation wore off and I began to get the sense that people were really not that focused on me after all.

This was not the first time this has ever happened either. Sometimes the feeling that everyone was looking at me has actually pumped up my ego in the past, but in retrospect I’m sure I wasn’t standing out anymore than I was at the Costco. I have even played the “looking game” with strangers and checked to see if they looked at me for any amount of time. If someone had then I would turn away for little bit and check again in several seconds to see if that person was still staring. If they were I would always say to myself something like “Ah I knew it”. This of course is all very silly and has everything to do with how I feel about me and not with the rest of humanity finding me way more interesting than everyone else.

To cope with this feeling is actually easy. Simply ignore the urge to check if people are staring at you. Because chances are that the vast majority of those around you are not eyeballing you like you think. It takes time to ignore things like this but you have to work on your levels of anxiety while in public because ultimately that and your lack of self confidence is what makes you feel like this. A few years back I would get this sensation everywhere I went, now I only get it every now and then. And when I do get it I just have to remind myself that it’s just me focusing on myself too much and nothing else.