Thanks for the advice. My therapist uses the term dissociation, but I wasn't sure if this related to how I feel in these types of circumstances as I had difficulty understanding why I would dissociate in relatively benign situations! I shall try and talk to my therapist about this, maybe if i gather my thoughts beforehand I will be able to put some words to the blankness that surrounds my head during these times.

The only reason I can think of as to why this may happen is that if there are lots of people around then there is lots of different interactions and feelings bounding around and maybe this could make me feel out of control? I only think this because I usually rely on predicting other peoples behaviour so I know how/what to say next etc. But it is hard to predict everyones next move in a group as there are so many possible outcomes. I have no idea why this would trigger me though or why I have this desperate need to be in control of everyone and everything all the time.

In the meantime I think I shall also try the grounding ideas to try and keep the feelings (or lack thereof) at bay a bit! Thanks for helping me make sense of this. Sometimes I feel like such a fool for not being able to concentrate and very lonely.