Dealing with Stress in Social Situations (upcoming book preview)

Written on 14th Sep 2020 by Alex Lowery

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As I previously mentioned, I’m hoping to make the second edition of my book. Below you can read a small section of the book as a preview that might get you excited for when it’s out. It’s about when I was 20 and I had a really busy day of giving speeches and it was causing me stress.

I was getting many opportunities to give speeches on autism. At some of the events, I had to give talks throughout the whole day (with breaks included of course). This would always exhaust me. On one of my speech days, I was staying somewhere for a few days and had speeches every day there. I was exhausted because I had been giving loads of talks for several days and I had one more speech to do. Once I had finished the speech, a number of people on the autistic spectrum (that were in the audience) started to speak to me including a gentleman in his late 30s. He went up to me and talked about how I inspired him & ended up telling me about his life’s story in great detail. I found myself looking at my watch. I was so bored! And I really wanted to leave but he was continuously talking and I didn’t know how to get a word in edgewise. 

Eventually I started trying to think up excuses to say I had to go because I simply couldn’t put up with it anymore. I was already feeling exhausted from giving the speech and I just couldn’t put up with this guy’s life’s story any longer. I kept it together (trying really hard to look interested) but on the inside, I was really stressed out. And he was talking so much that I couldn’t really see any chance to use any excuse of having to leave. 

Eventually the man started saying stuff like, “I could talk to you about this all night long” and this left me thinking “No! No! Please don’t!” Please don’t!” But not long after this, he finished the conversation and left which was much to my relief. I decided that after that conversation: I was simply sick of talking to people and wanted to get back my room, but suddenly… Much to my dismay: another man came up to me and started a conversation, but this time I was able to finish it fairly quickly. I  left the hall and decided to go to my room.

Once I got to my room: it felt so nice to be away from people and just have time to myself. But then I suddenly found out something that filled me with complete and utter horror! I realised that I had left my camera in the hall where I had spoken. I was unsure of what I should do. Should I go back for it or leave it for my mum to pick up? How could I guarantee that my mum wouldn’t assume I had brought it back myself? Much to my own dismay… I realised I had no choice but to go back into that horrible room full of people to get my camera back. I was actually almost scared to back in! I was worried that people would start talking to me again and I was just so shattered and tired of being social. But I reluctantly went back in because I felt my camera had to take priority. I think I may have even prayed that God would give me the strength to go back into that room & that it wouldn’t be too stressful. When I got back in the room, someone did talk to me but it was very brief and not too unbearable and it wasn’t long before both me and my mum left the hall.

This one evening still sticks in my mind as one of the most stressful times I’ve had when giving a speech. 

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