Being observed, what do you find helpful?

People eyes are so piercing that it feels they can see inside my head, everyone staring at one point and that point is me. I feel my brain is a dartboard and people sight are darts.

Even walls have eyes, even sounds are watching me.

I feel awkward, extremely awkward.

I am trying to focus on my books (I am at the college library) to avoid making the perception stronger. Books don't have eyes. Oh, and I have googled this thing:



What do you do that you find helpful for situations like this one?

I am trying to rationalize it: "If everyone were looking at me, they wouldn't be able to study." It reduces the stress but it doesn't eliminate the perception.

Crazy, inside and aside

"Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a
thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance."
I have no mouth and I must scream -Harlan Ellison-

I stopped caring....people were watching me in the bathroom from inside my head but I still had to go and they commented the whole time so I just stopped caring.

Yeah I’m with SP i sort of stopped caring that they were watching. They watch but it’s just whatever.

I wear earbuds or sunglasses when I go out if I am having this trouble. And I try to practice deep breathing to calm myself and just go to an inner safe space. Sometimes I still freak out but I’m working on it. I’m sorry you’re dealing with that; it’s very upsetting.

It was really difficult for me to not care or to ignore it. Eventually, between different meds and a good therapist, it disappeared. I wish you the same luck.

I'm not sure if you are speaking metaphorically or literally about the walls and sounds, and most of my issues with being watched is pareidolia, which is a normal physiological response and not hallucinatory. So idk how similar our experiences are, or how helpful my responses will be...

I've been watched by cameras and mirrors for years. The mirrors, I took down/covered. The cameras, I kind of grew to accept. I did hide to un/dress etc for years, but I guess that I mostly don't bother anymore. As Sometimes said, you still have to do those sorts of things regardless, so you just eventually learn to get on with it, or I did anyway.

With regards to eye contact from others: I wear sunglasses a lot to stop people reading my mind, and it reduces the intensity of eye contact. I too sometimes feel like people's eyes are penetrating deep inside of me, and I really hate it, so my eye contact isn't great. What helps, when I'm in a situation where I really need to make eye contact and seem 'normal', is to adopt this persona, kind of like a shield that protects me. It's like when I was a medical student and had this more confident persona who could approach strangers that regular me couldn't. It works with this too, for short periods of time. My eye contact isn't 100% what it was, and I still hate it, and it makes me feel uncomfortable the whole time, but I can do it and no one notices that it's a little off.

If you mean that the walls literally have eyes, well, I see eyes and faces in all sorts of things (pareidolia), like door handles, and wood patterns etc. It bothers me to varying degrees. It used to massively upset me in the beginning, but I did mostly get used to it. Sometimes I would cover the faces/eyes, sometimes I would avoid looking at them, sometimes I would even tell them to **** off, if no one was around (I do that with the crows too because they really **** me off at times!). lol The last few months it's extended to trees when I'm out in Nature. This bothers me because I always found being in Nature so calming, and now they stress me out. But I try not to let it bother me, or avoid doing the things that I love because of the eyes and faces with focusing on my breathing and being in the moment of what else is around me. It's a work in progress...

I hope that you find something that helps you cope with these experiences

*Willow*

Ahhhh I was writing and for some reason everything was deleted when I clicked the reply button

Ohm. Thank you all for answering.

( I didn't mean it metaphorically when I say walls have eyes)

Crazy, inside and aside

"Outwardly: dumbly, I shamble about, a thing that could never have been known as human, a
thing whose shape is so alien a travesty that humanity becomes more obscene for the vague resemblance."
I have no mouth and I must scream -Harlan Ellison-

Same here after a bunch of years. Listening to the voices in my mind tell me they were watching me. it just got to much. I decided to just let it go. I clung to it so bad. That I let it become a false reality. Thinking that it was real. But it's not I mean who in their right mind is that life less that they would watch someone that much. Because even if it was true Wich it's not. You would have to be way worse off then I am. It's silly but once you can break that fear of what if it gets better. You just have to train your own mind not to care anymore of if someone is watching or listening. It only takes us deeper into despair and insecurities and drives us to the brink. I still have to catch myself sometimes. Since it was brainwashed into me I have to remember to catch myself slipping back into my old thinking. But best of luck to all of you in the battle of the mind it's a rough road. But through faith and hope we can overcome what others are lucky they don't have to deal with.