# Psychology/explanation behind this reddit post **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 1, 2016, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605 "2016-03-01T06:46:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/21 "2016-03-01T18:04:08Z")
reading that I would have just assumed it was copypasta. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/22 "2016-03-01T19:14:35Z")
I tried eating an apple while giving a fuck, but juice kept dripping on her face. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/23 "2016-03-01T21:25:58Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I tried eating an apple while giving a fuck, but juice kept dripping on her face. You’re doing it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/24 "2016-03-01T22:11:38Z")
It’s just distraction, when I cut my grass or exercising that’s all I’m focused on at that moment and it’s good to get out of your own head sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/25 "2016-03-01T22:51:26Z")
In line with the thread about eating food the wrong way. I posit that we’ve all been eating apples the wrong way: [Eat an Apple Like a Boss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdCGnuccRv0#t=61). Instead of eating it around the core and leaving roughly 30% wasted. Eat it from the top down and eat the whole damn thing. Oh, and I think the reddit post is full of shit. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/26 "2016-03-02T02:20:04Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > I tried eating an apple while giving a fuck, but juice kept dripping on her face. You \*definitely \*win the thread. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/27 "2016-03-02T03:01:20Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > When I eat an apple, I worry about getting my hands all sticky with the juices and worry about how loud my crunching is. Apples make me self-conscious. I’m not kidding either. ☹ Ditto. And also not kidding. I also worry that I’m never sure if I prefer the end nearer the stem or nearer the blossom scar. It seems that one end is sweeter, but the other end is more thirst slaking. So which do I want to end my apple experience with? Do I eat all the other end first? Go back and forth like a typewriter? Or even (horrors!) take random bites that don’t connect? No, no, never the last. The universe would implode or something. Apples are stressful. ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/28 "2016-03-03T21:12:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Apples have diddly to do with this. Walk down the street sipping a soda. Same mental reaction. Walk down the street tossing a tennis ball from hand to hand. Same mental reaction. Walk down the street silently repeating the Gettysburg address or a Shakespeare sonnet. Same mental reaction. > > The whole point is that normally when you’re walking around your (the OP’s) mind is totally consumed by self-conscious social anxiety. You’re totally stuck in that loop. It may be mostly unconscious, and you think you’re thinking about something else. But that’s not what’s really going on. > > Anything else you can think about will break that loop. Anything. > > Something more physical and more elemental will be more effective just because their physicality helps your mental discipline. It’s easier to unconsciously stop the Shakespeare & switch back to your anxiety tape than it is to stop eating the half eaten apple. > > Something else you will notice: The quality of your thinking goes to hell if you’re carrying something. Try composing an argument, doing simple arithmetic, or remembering a list of things while carrying something in one or two hands. You’ll be amazed at how much stupider you are. > > If you need 4 things at the grocery store you’re much more likely to forget one if you just try to carry & juggle them all while shopping versus if you put them in a hand basket versus if you put them in a push cart you can let go of. > > Why? Your mind has a very limited short-term storage AKA “working memory.” The act of carrying things consumes some of those very few slots. > > Fiddling with an apple or anything else helps disrupt working memory & helps bring anxiety tapes to a halt. Yeah, this pretty much nails it. I used to go to clubs a lot many years ago, and I was usually shy and nervous, yet wanted to join in. A friend suggested that I hold a drink- it didn’t matter much whether I actually drank it or not, the important thing was that simply holding a drink made me look 1000% less awkward than just standing there nervously. The same thing goes for parties where you don’t know a lot of people. I think in clinical psychology too, they have a term for objects- “grounding devices.” Stuff like playing with silly putty or a stress ball, etc. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605/29 "2016-03-03T22:14:31Z")
I kind of disagree. It is not impossible to have social anxiety while eating an apple. That’s like saying that it’s impossible to feel nervous while reciting a speech in front of an audience. Performing an action doesn’t stop someone from feeling all kinds of things. But what it does is promote desensitization. Initially, a person with SAD may be nervous as hell eating an apple. But then he or she notices that no one is paying them any attention and they become less embarrassed. Hopefully, this person will then start to understand that no one is paying attention to them all the other times either. Ideally, a person doesn’t care whether anyone notices them. When I first started developing motor tics, I was embarrassed as hell. My therapist thought I would benefit from taking a yoga class, but the idea of everyone inwardly judging me made me hesitant. She would tell me, “Don’t worry. No one is even going to notice!” But I didn’t find that helpful. I know that I notice when people are behaving in weird ways in my presence, so why would I assume I’m invisible to others? After going to class a few times, I got confirmation. People can’t help but to see someone who is jerking and twitching and falling. But what kept me going to class was the realization that “being noticed” is not the end of the world. They noticed me, I noticed them noticing. And fun was still had by all. Someone might notice you eating that apple, because you might be unusually loud and messy or whatever. And you may even notice them noticing you. They may even express disapproval with their body language! But just keep eating the damn thing anyway. Apples are delicious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-explanation-behind-this-reddit-post/747605.md?page=1)