Well it isn't really "mental illness", more like absolutely not knowing what to expect. As I said, me reading all those books up there and reading the sequences at this very site has helped me see through a lot of the bullshit "normal" people use to justify their behavior, which they take for granted. Once you've seen that they are as weak, incompetent and insecure as yourself, and that they aren't nearly as dangerous or powerful as they want to appear, you can talk to them much more easily.

Becoming easy with your own awkwardness and playing it up for adorkable points is also a good way of turning a faux pas into a pas de danse. Darren Criss (A Very Potter Musical, Glee) has been a great model for me in that sense, especially when it comes to dancing.