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Ack, I just wrote this really long message, and my internet explorer quit on me! I'll try to remember what I typed.

As you know, I have trouble with socializing, too. I never know how to start or enter a conversation, and I have a hard time keeping one going. I have gotten better at it a bit, though. I can't tell if someone is joking or being sarcastic, and if someone speaks vaguely or not completely clearly, their meaning is often lost on me, or I misinterpret them. I also tend to "put my foot in my mouth" by saying things people become offended by, without realizing that what I've said offensive. It's because I'm fairly blunt and straightforward, and don't consider what I'm saying to be mean or rude. I also am not that great at verbalizing, I need time to process what the other person has said, and then order my own thoughts to respond. Words get jumbled in my head quite a bit, and my sentences can come out backwards or mixed up, with strange word choice. Sometimes, especially when there is a lot of background noise, I have a very hard time understanding what people have said, and I have to ask them to repeat themselves. After three times doing this, people tend to get annoyed and I usually have to just smile and pretend I heard them.

I think it's hard to have rules for this sort of thing, because it often depends on the context of the situation. I have found that it is generally acceptable in the classroom setting that if two people are talking about something in your vicinity that you know about, to enter their conversation even if you don't know them. This is how people get to know eachother. I have a hard time with this, but watching other people, it seems most don't mind you entering their conversation unless it is about something private, like their boyfriend or something.

As for telling people they look bad, well, if a friend of mine asks what I think of their clothing, and I don't like it, I try to be honest without being too harsh. I will say something like "it's not my taste," or "Maybe something else would look better" rather than just saying "it's ugly."

Are there any rules for understanding sarcasm? I can tell someone is joking if what they say is outlandish enough, but otherwise I take them seriously, and I have gotten into trouble with this before, because I become arguementative when they only meant to fool around.

Also, what is the rule for smiling? People often tell me I look unhappy because I don't smile naturally, and that I should smile more so people will think of me as a more pleasant person. But then I feel goofy and like I am smiling too much. I have this problem with eye contact, too. I used to not look at people at all when they spoke to me, after I found out I was supposed to do that, I started staring too much.

When joking, people will often smile when saying something that you might think was serious and wouldn't usually be smiled at.
When being sarcastic, most people make their vowls longer and change the pitch of their voice and some people make slightly exaggerated eye movements. It is sometimes very hard to tell. My dad doesn't often do any of these when being sarcastic so sometimes my mum or I take him seriously when he's only joking. sweatdrop I did that today.



Don't worry too much about the smiling. Perhaps if you really want to smile and can't smile naturally you could think of something that made you smile?
I have a goofy smile naturally when i'm really happy. So people laugh at me when I'm happy, which is ok, because when I'm happy I don't mind! blaugh

I would recommed that with eye contact, you don't look at people at all if when you do you stare. Talking to someone who isn't looking at me would make me think one of three things:
- The person does not want to speak to me
- The person is concentrating on soemthing else as well as me talking
- The person does not like eye contact

But talking to someone who was staring at me would make me think one of theses things:
- There is soemthing unusual about my appereance that the other person cannot stop looking at
- The other person wants to intimidate me (and I would feel intimidated anyway)
- The other person cannot/does not move their eyes much

So the staring is worse.

I have bizarre behavior in public quite a bit of the time, which makes socializing hard for me.

I have a hard time with keeping my mouth shut, so sometimes I just jump into conversations or say something offensive. I have tendency to give too much information as well.
Most of my social problems stem from the fact that my thoughts are very disorganized. For example, I quickly lose interest in the midst of conversation and start to walk away. Or you could tell me something at the beginning of a conversation and by the end, I would have forgotten what you'd told me. Also, I have trouble showing emotion unless it's extremely exaggerated.
Sometimes I talk to my self, though it's usually because I'm talking/yelling at my "voices" and I laugh, scream or cry at spontantious intervals.

And the worst part is that I alternate between these things and being completely normal, or at least, appearing completely normal. So people that know me are usually somewhat intimidated by my changes in behavior.

As far as delusions or hallucinations go, I rarely have them in public, thank God. And actually, I've only had two or three full blown hallucinations besides the audatory "voices" that I keep under wraps.

I know this is an odd thing to say, but my French teacher rarely shows obvious facial expression, and once commented on a comment that no-one made. I wonder...

The smiling things bugs me sometimes. I apparently look troubled when I think hard about something. Then people come up to me and ask "Are you ok?" and I say "Yeah, I'm fine, you alright?" and come back to my surroundings and smile. Then they look very confused. sweatdrop

Caffinated - a book on body language? That sounds interesting. 3nodding

I have an antisocial personality disorder. Simple as that

i'm antisocial, and shy. I often have difficulty at SAYING the words. I often can think whole dialogues beforehand, but my mouth doesn't follows :/

i can't "read" peoples, but on the other hand, i can sort of guess what they want... sometimes :s

Thank goodness! I have frequent delusions or hallucinations in public. I used to be a lot more worried that people would notice, and they do sometimes, but I've learned that people aren't actually very likely to jump to the conclusion that you're crazy if you act strangely. Most people see what they want to see, unless I'm doing a very poor job of damage control!