Ice breaker questions for dating

So I’m 31, a guy, and it feels like every family dinner or group hangout with friends ends up with the same question circling around me: “when are you going to finally meet someone?” or “why don’t you just try one of those speed dating events, it could be fun!!” — and I can’t lie, it feels like I’ve been hearing this loop for years now. I’ve been single for so long that it’s almost become like another skin I wear, comfortable but also kind of itchy when other people point it out all the time. The thing is, I’m autistic, and for me walking into a social environment that is structured around rapid-fire conversations with strangers is not just intimidating, it’s kind of like being asked to run a marathon in shoes that don’t fit right. I like plans, I like predictability, I like knowing what’s going to happen and having a rough script to work from; and speed dating is literally the opposite of that, it’s improvisation stacked on improvisation, with time pressure, overstimulation, and lots of background noise. My brain wants to plan every word in advance, but the event format makes that impossible, so I’ve been trying to find a middle ground. That’s why I got obsessed with the idea of having ice breaker questions prepared in advance. It sounds simple, maybe even silly, but to me it feels like a small safety net. If I have a set of go-to conversational openers, I might not feel like I’m drowning right away. I looked up a bunch of articles that say things like “just be yourself, ask about hobbies, ask about travel,” but that’s too vague for me. I need specifics! I want to go into the situation with like a toolkit, the same way you’d bring the right screwdrivers to fix something mechanical. Otherwise, I know I’ll freeze, I’ll say something awkward, and the whole interaction will just fall flat. Has anyone else felt like the basic advice doesn’t cut it??? Like when someone says “just relax and go with the flow,” what does that even mean for someone whose brain literally doesn’t flow the same way?

I tried to draft some questions myself, like “what’s your favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon?” or “what kind of music have you been into lately?” because I feel like those are neutral, not too invasive, but they also give the other person room to expand. I’m also curious if it’s okay to bring up stuff like “do you enjoy your work?” or “do you like cooking at home or eating out?” — but then I panic because what if that sounds too much like an interview??? What if they just think I’m weird for scripting this in my head??? And yet, not having a plan feels like setting myself up to crash and burn; so I’m stuck in this in-between zone of wanting to prep but not wanting to sound robotic. A friend told me, “you’re overthinking it, just make eye contact and smile,” but eye contact itself is exhausting for me and smiling when I’m overwhelmed feels fake. It’s not that I don’t want to meet someone, it’s that I want to do it without feeling like I’m putting on a whole act that drains me for days after. And that’s the hardest part to explain to people who aren’t autistic — they think it’s just shyness or nerves, when really it’s more like running social interactions through a constant CPU-heavy processing system. I wonder if other people prepare “conversation trees” in their heads, like almost imagining dialogue options in a video game (I literally do this — like “if she says X, then I can reply Y or Z”), and it feels logical to me, but maybe it comes off stiff in real life. I don’t want to be stiff, I want to be genuine, but with my kind of wiring, genuineness sometimes needs scaffolding. Does that make sense?? I’ve read references that therapists sometimes use “social scripts” for practice, which makes me feel less alone in this. I know other people use them in professional settings too, like sales reps have their scripts, or customer service has theirs. So why should it be so odd if I want one for dating? Still, I’m nervous about how that looks in practice. Maybe I should test them out with a friend first, but that also feels weird because friends already know me. Honestly I’m just hoping if I go in with a few good questions in my pocket, maybe I’ll survive the experience without shutting down completely. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll even find someone who appreciates that I prepared, instead of judging me for it 🙂 Do you think questions like “what’s a meal that instantly makes you feel at home?” or “have you ever had a totally random adventure that stuck with you?” would work, or are those too much for a speed dating setting where you only have like five minutes??? I really want to get this right, even though I know perfection isn’t the goal, but preparation at least gives me a fighting chance at not walking out feeling like a complete failure 🤔

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