I feel like addressing people by name is one of those things that society pushes as "good social etiquette." As a way to connect w people & signal that we're caring & empathetic.
and maybe that's absolutely true...
but for me it feels so completely unnatural that it literally makes me cringe. I guess bc it just feels so horribly invasive & intimate. With strangers it's almost impossible. I'm so bad at it that any empathy I'm trying to project is lost in awkwardness & then it's just weird.
Even w people I know well I still have to force myself. Just one of a hundred "mental reminders" that, for me, fall under the category of autistic masking.