Perhaps they don't have many, if any, friends. If this is true, then they are probably not aware of something they are doing or not doing that drives people away. Hard to say without knowing the person and the situation.
I'm polite and respectful of people but the next thing I know they are acting like I've known them for years and we are good friends. They then feel free to criticize and say things only a person close to me should ever say. That's when I have to let them know in not so many words we are not friends, hello and goodbye. Very creepy.
You know, there are a lot of people nowadays that don't have a sense of appropriate boundaries. It used to be that you learned how to be friends when you were little - mom / dad / neighbors would all help the child learn boundaries with their little friends, so as they grew up, they could discern when someone was a friend or not.
Nowadays, generally speaking, kids don't get that much time to just be kids - to go outside, play with neighbor kids, go to the park with a bunch of friends, etc. Their time is too regimented. As a result, there are many people that struggle with boundaries and they have no clue that their behavior is upsetting to someone else - because they have not been "trained" to read body language. It sounds like you keep running into people that have never learned body language and appropriate social cues, so you're having to "teach" them - for lack of a better term - what is appropriate for you.
There can be many, many reasons, psychological and physical. For instance, they may have poor self-esteem, perhaps from childhood or more recent experiences, this may lead them to come on too strong in their desire to be liked, wanted and to feel they belong. It could be that they have a personality disorder, and their coming on too strong, acting like they are more important to you than they are could be a form of manipulation - they think acting like you are close will mean they ARE close and have certain rights, the thinking is you might be flattered that they are so keen on you so soon... Passive aggressive is another motivation.. by pretending to be close, then criticising you, they may feel this will put you off balance, make you question yourself
There are more reasons than we can imagine.. thing is they seem to have chosen the wrong person in you as you are strong and didn't fall for whatever stunt they were trying to play
One possible cause could be that the acquaintance is abnormally not self aware. The other, more probable (if it happens frequently), possibility is that the person who feels many forced friendships is abnormal in their approach to friendships/acquaintances.
This post was edited by Standard Alien at February 20, 2017 3:59 PM MST
O-Uknow you wrote: "I'm polite and respectful of people but the next thing I know they are acting like I've known them for years and we are good friends. They then feel free to criticize and say things only a person close to me should ever say. That's when I have to let them know in not so many words we are not friends, hello and goodbye. Very creepy."
Frankly, if someone approached me the way you describe, I would be very worried they were taking measurements when my back was turned with the intention of eventually wearing my skin as his new spring coat. You were right to shut it down.
Danae_Morgan 