Honestly, I can't relate to a lot of your personal issues, but one thing that Starbucks taught me was to just fake it. You don't have to actually care about what you're talking about with the customers- just be an *actor,* and act like you do. I'm terrible at small talk in real life, but I've gotten fairly good at faking it at work.

Some conversation starters that work for me:

-What are you up to today?

-You heading to work? Where do you work? What do you do there? Oh that sounds so interesting (remember, you're faking it.)

- Did you get to go out and enjoy the sunshine yesterday? (Insert useless weather-related tidbits here, but sound enthusiastic about it!)

-Any big plans for the weekend? (Then talk about what they're doing, or share your own plans, etc.)

-The car in front of you had the cutest little puppy in it! He was so sweet and floofy. (Blah blah blah, talk about dogs. I don't have to *pretend* to care about dogs.)

I actually ended up having a really long (waiting on food) and meaningful conversation with a customer, after starting with my typical Saturday line about fun weekend plans. Turns out her mother was in hospice and she was basically waiting for her to die. Not uplifting for me, but it made a difference to her that I cared and listened to what she said.

Edited for formatting, and formatting is still weird so I'm leaving it.

hey bae I have bpd too and this job honestly just sucks. Better than any other job I’ve had but I’m going to part time because of it and I got a more relaxed job at a slower locally owned coffee shop. this job has way too much stimulation going on I can’t take it so maybe you can go part time and get another simpler job if that benefits you. Best of luck

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