Does anyone else here have a problem with perceived antagonism from others?
What do I mean by perceived antagonism? Basically, if I don't make the effort to check in with a colleague for a while, or it has otherwise been a long time since I've talked to someone I'm acquainted with, my brain will do a weird thing where it makes up an antagonistic relationship between us. In other words, I spin some story in my head where the only explanation as to why we haven't talked in so long is that they don't like me or hold me in spite for some reason. The worst part is that this feeling only exacerbates daily, up until the point when I coincidentally run into them and realize that it wasn't that way at all. We just hadn't talked in a while; there was nothing wrong or antagonistic between us. For right now, I'm chalking this feeling up to not being comfortable with being an introvert who rarely makes the effort to start the conversation, and as such, I feel guilty about not reaching out, especially to people who come off as extroverts or who are otherwise loquacious.
Does this make sense? To be clear, this doesn't really happen with the one close friend I have, since I really know them well. This has more to do with people who I know at a surface level and hang out with only for required activities (classmates, colleagues, acquaintances, etc.). Please let me know if you also experience this and how/if you've gotten over it!
Posted Dec 6, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC