What do you do if you feel peopel are looking at you?

[hollowone]

A. Assume they're looking for a friends of their's or what's going on around them or they're otherwise innocent

B. If not, just ignore it and focus on what you're doing

C. Confront them in a non-agressive manner, asking them why they said what they did (don't accuse people of crimes they haven't done),

D. Make threats

E. Say nothing, just approach them and clobber them over the head with a baseball bat.

[Oddity]

A is the closest if it was me, but it would most likely be...

F. Try to get behind something/someone so they can't look at me, try to figure what's wrong with my appearance (other than my face as usual, e.g. food on me, hair sticking up, something). If I can't do any of that or it doesn't work: get panicky and find a way to leave.

or

G. Get more drunk.

[Omar Little]

I look back at them to see if they are looking at me. And if they are looking at me, i'll give a little nod of the head. If they don't acknowledge my head nod AND they continue looking at me, I furrow my brows and hold up my hands in a gesture of "Yeah? What? Am I missing something?"

[Dougella]

F. Assume something's wrong with me.

I also feel like doing E but I rarely have a baseball bat with me if I'm out somewhere

[slinkydink]

Generally B nowadays.

I used to be terrible for thinking everyone was staring at me when I went outside. Or that every little look or smile on someone's face was somehow related to be, like I looked incredibly strange, out of place, or just plain weird. It affected my self-esteem badly.

Thankfully I've largely gotten past those feelings, though they can appear now and again.

[BritishPeace]

I assume they think I'm handsome and are attracted to me

[Silent Ninja]

Immediately look down or away.

[newbs16]

I think some people are really nosey and probably don't realise what they are doing, I often think what is he/she looking at. I wish I could say is everything okay as I noticed you've looked over several times!

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[Tembo]

A. Assume they're looking for a friends of their's or what's going on around them or they're otherwise innocent

'A' for me - its highly unlikely someone would be looking at me. Even if they are staring at me, I no longer care what strangers think of me. Why should I?
I used to be paranoid whenever a stranger looked at me, but CBT has helped change that.

[Metal Goat]

I used to always feel like people were looking at me. Funnily enough, moving to a country where foreigners DO get stared at regularly made me realize that usually if people are looking they are either being nosey, daydreaming and not really looking AT you or just looking for friends. The fact that I now feel much less paranoid about this stuff shows me that it must have been on my head all along although at the time I was sure it was real.

In the case of here they're looking (especially if they're tourists from another place in China with less expats) because they don't see white people that often and it's a novelty. Once there were seven of us walking down the street and a little girl shouted excitedly (in Chinese) look at all the foreigners!! Staring isn't seen as rude here like it is back home so I've gotten used to it.

[hollowone]

I would assume they're innocent and simply looking out for friends, the time (public transport), a tv screen, the band in a pub or something innocent like that.

Let's look at reasons why you fear someone might be looking at you. What promtped me to start the post was the thought of people looking at me for sitting alone. I was with two friends who smoked and guarded their drink whilst they went outside. If you are sat on your own, you are more likely to feel that people are looking at you than when you're with people.

Isabelle Lightwood, you're expressing same issue, but for a different reason and in different contexts; being a foreigner. The cultural factor of staring being more socially-acceptable over there is new to me.

On a more serious note, I wonder how many fights have started in pubs due to someone thinking that someone's looking at them? I'm always advised to avoid making eye contact with people who appear drunk for that very reason. Don't worry, I'm not going to end-up doing anything stupid like pick fights with people.

[Dandelion10]

I would assume they think I'm weird and freeze, there's no limit to how long I can literally freeze like a statue in a social situation.

It does lead to muscle aches later at night though.

You can usually tell if someone wants to befriend you or if they think you're strange.

[Libbyjay]

I'm going with both F options!

Although I do like people watching and on the odd occasion I've been caught looking at someone, I feel like I want to go over there and say "Sorry I was staring at you. I was just admiring you hair, dress, jeans, shoes as I think they look really nice"
because a) I'm worried they have SA and will spend the next 20 years thinking about that freak that was staring and b) don't want them thinking i'm some wierdo.

I way over think things too much!

[Ajax Amsterdam]

For me it's all about context. I can get a feel for whether a look is something to be concerned about by the context in which it occurs. I don't generally think anything in particular if anyone looks my way. If they are close enough I will probably just smile and/or say hi.

Contrast this with my decades of SA-induced paranoia when any glance my way was perceived as 'evidence' of my 'grotesque appearance' and proof that I'd been spotted and identified as 'not one of us' and thus not a worthy human being. A look used to have all sorts of sinister intentions going by my brain back then.