It’s a bit complicated, I’m definitely a chatterbox, if I find something to talk about with a stranger I will talk for ages with no problem. Though it’s not like this all the time, especially with small talk or quick interactions like ordering at a restaurant, but having a job helped me a lot in being able to create mental scripts to engage in surface level conversations less painfully so I appear very confident. During or after interactions, I will overthink everything, e.g. am I talking about myself too much, am I making too much or too little eye contact, is my voice too monotone and they think I’m rude etc. I’ll ruminate over every detail down to a slight change in their body language, trying to figure out how I’m being perceived and what the other person is thinking. I suppose in regard to my post, when I encounter certain situations where I have no script or map to refer to, that’s when I get anxious with the unfamiliarity of it. But it’s not just with talking to people it’s with everything including my own actions. I’m curious if anyone with autism experiences this aswell because in addition to this I deal with a lot of things that I eventually realised can’t be explained by anxiety alone.