I have been told a couple of times over the course of my life by different people that I need to “read the room” better. I never understood what this meant when I was younger. I do now, but knowing what it means does nothing to help me. I take what most people tell me at face value. They tell me they are okay? Then I accept that, and it turns out they weren’t okay at all. If they say they are okay, and I ask them are they sure, do they need anything or want to talk about it, then I’m too pushy or reading into it too much. I have a hard time telling when people aren’t being straight forward.
Today my fiancé asked me to talk to someone for them. So I did. Then a bit afterwards they said “But not today, I’d rather it be tomorrow because I’m tired now and it’s late.” But I had already talked to the person they wanted me to talk to. So now, I am being told to learn to “read the room” better because I should have known they didn’t want to talk to that person right now, even though *they* asked me to to do so.
I just don’t understand how I’m expected to read people’s minds. They say it should be obvious or come naturally if I’m paying attention, but it just doesn’t. No matter how much I pay attention it doesn’t help. So people think I don’t care or that I’m not putting in effort because of it. I’ve been like this all my life, and I don’t get why people can’t just be straight forward with me. How am I supposed to learn to “read the room” better? It just feels like no matter how hard I try I always get it wrong.
1 comment
[removed]