Wow I can't believe I just went outside in the daytime (usually I will never do this unless absolutely necessary, or for work....) I have a fear of people looking at me.
Anyway... I have a dog. Usually the kids have to walk him in the daytime and I walk him in the dark. Today I just decided this is silly and I made a plan. It worked. Here are my tips:
- I went early in the morning (Sunday) without even having a shower. That way if I looked like my hair wasn't perfect people would realize "Hey, it's Sunday morning, she just got up to walk the dog". It seemed easier than washing and styling my hair and then people might say "Is that the best her hair can look?"
- I wore really big sunglasses so no eye contact.
- When I saw another person in the distance it was pretty easy to just turn around and go the other way (It looked like my dog had changed direction, not like I was avoiding people).
- I could also bend down and pretend to be patting the dog or re-arranging the leash so that I wouldn't have to look at people passing
- When people did come fairly close to me I would just keep my distance and pull my dog the other way. It looked like I was just trying to keep the dogs apart from each other, which is pretty polite because some people don't like their dogs jumping all over other people's dogs.
Overall I would give my 20 minute dog walk experience an A-.
I don't think I could do it in the afternoons after work though, because people would expect my hair and clothes to be much nicer at that time of day.
Anyway... I have a dog. Usually the kids have to walk him in the daytime and I walk him in the dark. Today I just decided this is silly and I made a plan. It worked. Here are my tips:
- I went early in the morning (Sunday) without even having a shower. That way if I looked like my hair wasn't perfect people would realize "Hey, it's Sunday morning, she just got up to walk the dog". It seemed easier than washing and styling my hair and then people might say "Is that the best her hair can look?"
- I wore really big sunglasses so no eye contact.
- When I saw another person in the distance it was pretty easy to just turn around and go the other way (It looked like my dog had changed direction, not like I was avoiding people).
- I could also bend down and pretend to be patting the dog or re-arranging the leash so that I wouldn't have to look at people passing
- When people did come fairly close to me I would just keep my distance and pull my dog the other way. It looked like I was just trying to keep the dogs apart from each other, which is pretty polite because some people don't like their dogs jumping all over other people's dogs.
Overall I would give my 20 minute dog walk experience an A-.
I don't think I could do it in the afternoons after work though, because people would expect my hair and clothes to be much nicer at that time of day.
via Social Anxiety Forum http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/forum/f9/dog-walking-399489/
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