Anxious People Share The Times They Accidentally Annoyed People

Anxiety is hard.

In your unending quest to keep everybody happy and not annoy people, you end up inevitably annoying people. The very nature of anxiety is submissive, and if you can't hold your own in a social situation, you feel thrown by the waves.

So when JTDobson7 of Reddit asked:

What is something you catch yourself accidentally doing that is generally annoying to other people?

They learned they certainly were not alone.

I answer questions with questions all the time. I honestly didn't even notice I did this, until my brother got annoyed that my little nephew picked it up from me.

Pacing back and forth in a room when I'm bored or nervous. Sometimes my body finds it hard to sit still in one spot.

The way I eat popsicles. I had one last night while my wife and I were reading. I thought I was just enjoying a quiet popsicle until my wife gave me her look. Apparently I'd been going to town on this popsicle and loudly slurping for the past 10 minutes.

Not replying to their texts. It's not intentional, I just get distracted and forget.

Whenever I walk down hallways I tap my knuckles on the wall. I don't know why and I bet it annoys the people on the other side, but I always just instinctively do it.

Tapping the table to a beat in my head.

When I'm tired at work I mutter to myself, and narrate what I am doing to try and help concentration. Drives other people nutty. Thankfully I have started work in an office where they politely flick a rubber band at me when I'm doing it.

Dropping random facts I learned from reddit that aren't really useful in conversation.

Interrupting a conversation the moment I have a thought.

Double/Triple text Sometimes I just separate text messages that could be sent together,especially when telling a story. Other times I do it in attempt to get the person's attention ( probably the more annoying one).

When I get really excited I talk far louder than is socially acceptable.

Sometimes if I start on a train of thought, I can end up zoning out for a while and seem like I'm staring pretty intently at people.

Can't keep eye contact to save my life. One time my coworkers mentioned how rude I was when my boss came by because I hardly looked at him. I had no idea.

Somebody else is asked something in conversation and I answer instead.

I tend to form conclusions very quickly without waiting for the other person to fully explain themselves or the situation at hand. I've started giving out imformation before I've heard all the facts and gotten heated before I heard the full explanation. I really just need to take more time to listen.

I make little noises to illustrate actions I do with my hands. I'll pick up a salt shaker and go, "zhooop!" I'll shake it over my food and go, "Shaka Shaka." The good thing though is once people know me they tend to just treat it as part of my personality. But I always become acutely aware of this weird habit I have whenever I meet new people.

Overuse of sarcasm towards my friends (for humor purposes)... Sometimes I get on a roll and realize that I'm basically just being an ass towards my friends; it goes from funny to annoying, for sure.

When telling a story I include entirely too many irrelevant details.

About a month ago in a meeting for work I was sporadically clicking my pen when all of a sudden my boss flipped out at me telling me to stop immediately or I'm gone. I wasnt even aware I was doing it that much but apparently it's a huge pet peeve of his.

I talk way too much about myself. I don't have that many people to talk with, so I go on and on about myself when someone makes the mistake of asking me a question.

When people ask if you're doing anything nice at the weekend, or if you just had a nice weekend, they're often wanting you to return the question so they can tell you about theirs.

All too often I forget that bit, tell them all about my weekend and walk away.

I honestly catch myself one upping people in conversations just trying to continue it. But my friend gladly let me know what it came off as. I've stopped now.