Ever since I was young, I’ve had trouble with eye contact.  Whenever I look into people’s eyes, I find that I can’t hold the gaze for long, and I either start to look at random things that surround us or other parts of their face.  It all stems from extreme shyness in my childhood, when I was too scared to look at people, so I stared at their noses or eyebrows instead.  Even nowadays, I find it hard to hold someone’s gaze, perhaps because I find it to be so intimate.  Eyes have always been my favorite body part.  Looking straight into them distracts me from the conversation at hand.  I get lost and my mind spins.  Eyes are far too intense.  I’m still working on it, but  I think this is such a deep-seeded childhood habit that I don’t know if I will ever overcome it completely.

Anyone else have this problem?