[MatBell]

Hi all,

This is my first post, I'm pretty new in here. I just needed to write this out somewhere. I'm at work right now, and I can't seem to function properly with others. Everything annoys me, my colleagues annoy me. For some reason I can't function in a normal work environment. I don't know why I am like this. I'm always the one asking how people are and so on, and I get nothing in return. This just makes me more annoyed and I stop trying to make contact. I start to get withdrawn, not say much, and I'm sure people think I'm morose/weird or something like that. But it never starts out like this. I always try to be in good spirits.
It just really effects how I'm coping at work. It's like I somehow destroy every relationship with other people one way or another, this always happens - it's like they can't figure me out, and then they keep away. I know I'm not happy-go-lucky because of the depression and so on, but I still somehow manage these days. I'm not in the worst of states of depression right now as I was 4-5 months ago, but I'm still not good.
But I am nice one-on-one with people and in small groups. This thing just occurs so often with me, I'm afraid how I will manage work in the future.

Do you all experience anything like this type of difficulties being around people, like at work, you don't know well because of your depression?

[Shazerac]

Just a thought but work is sort of an artificial social setting to begin with. It's not necessary to be friends with people at work they are just coworkers. Just go about your business and do your job. I've been in many work situations where coworkers annoyed me. I just try to ignore them and do my job as best I can.

Save your time and emotional energy for true social settings with people you are comfortable being around.

[MatBell]

Thanks for your answer. You're right about the artificial social setting. I do like a lot of them, still I manage to mess it up somehow. Then I end up leaving early and they wonder what's wrong. I guess I get frustrated with myself and my relationships with other people. I'm probably too sensitive in some ways.

Shazerac pretty much took my words out.

I will add my sympathy to what you're experiencing, it's very similar to what I felt and experienced in my past work.
I stopped working there not a long time ago, and I still have some burnt feelings of "why did it end up like this with X, Y, Z?", or "why couldn't I connect with X, Y, Z more?" for instance.
By understanding that eventually every worker cares foremost about his day's worth, it helped me take the relationships with them more casually, which has made me feel allot better, adding to a better balance of work+human interaction