This is kind of embarrasing, but does anyone else suffer from social anxiety? I've been shy my whole life and never felt totally comfortable interacting with strangers, but sometimes it gets a bit extreme.

For example, I was at Best Buy today with some gift cards and wanted to pick up a few CDs, but as I was standing in line, I suddenly started panicking and had to leave the line and the store without purchasing anything. I know it's ridiciulous, but I just couldn't bring myself to interact with the cachier. This happens a lot at the grocery store too.

I'm seriously thinking about seeing a psychiatrist about this because it's really messing up my social life.

buy a gun and wave it around when you feel afraid.

drink more

I guess I have it a little bit but never that bad.

Actually, that works, and it works very well. However, I don't want to turn into an alcoholic.

I'm sure I have a social anxiety to an extent, even though I have never been diagnosed with it. But it's normally when I feel out of place. For instance, when I am around a large group of males and they are all talking about sports, I do start to feel a little anxiety since I have pretty much no interest in sports and have nothing to contribute to the discussion. I like playing them sometimes but don't follow current sports related happenings at all. I also get uncomfortable going to weddings and receptions.

sweens, you work in manhattan?

yes badly, cant afford therapy though so i will continue on suffering

hence my presence here (and absence at obner gatherings in austin)

its actually gotten a lot worse. for a long time i would refuse to interact with people and because of this my social skills have suffered severely. seriously retarded when it comes to social stuff now, but i'm working on it. i'm thinking of seeing someone too

do you ever go to manhattan?

(yes, in a thread about your social anxiety, i'm going to try to get you to come to a happy hour)

You and my bro should hang out. He lives in Austin, but he's kind of reclusive. 8) He has a few friends up there...

I thought I had social anxiety disorder a few years ago and I probably did then, but i'm as outgoing as could be.
I guess. I don't know. I need to see a therapist for other reasons but I just don't feel like asking my mom and when I go talk to a person, if I were to, I couldn't talk to them about 99% of the shit I need to so it'd be useless.

Oh well. Best of luck to you. I know it must be tough and I hope you somehow overcome it and i'm positive you can and will eventually and hopefully it won't take too much time.

Yes, but I don't want to talk about it.

sounds disastrous. does he play tennis?

Haha. He used to play tennis. In fact, my dad teaches it for a living. Anyway, my bro is basically a big music geek, computer geek and health nut.

I think I used to have it, but I've grown more confident with age. I'm still pretty quiet in person. I have a hard time striking up conversation with strangers, unless they're outgoing and do most of the work.

I've learned to speak up for myself and speak my mind, I'm no longer afraid of that. But if someone doesn't go out of their way to talk to me, I'm perfectly happy being silent. Not something I like about myself, I'd love to be Vince Vaughn in Swingers.

That description applies to me, too. It gets annoying to hear the phrase "You're so quiet!" every few weeks, but I'm not one to talk just for the sake of talking.

Yes, and I'm on meds for it. that's the extent of what i'll say.

Yes, but not to the point where I can't go to the store kind of thing. I used to be much worse but getting a job in an office where I have to talk to people on the phone, etc, really helped with that. Helped my comfort level with different sorts of people. However, I still don't like parties and I'm still very reticent when it comes to introducing myself to people. I find it very very awkward. I'm much better off when spoken to. I don't have a desire to be a really social person, but I do wish it was easier for me to meet people.

Ive kinda grown out of it by forcing myself to. If I feel uncomfortable I still make myself do it. Now it comes a little more naturally.

Used to be really horrible about it; still am on occasion. I just got to used to the mantra, "If it makes me uncomfortable, dive in." I had a real bad problem with disappearing for months at a time, not answering phone calls, etc., but work and concerned friends combined to help me out of it. If you even think about seeing a shrink, then do it, and remember most health insurance plans cover it. All the same, I find myself on the way to parties/shows/whathaveyou and I'll have a panic attack (probably once every three months or so.)

No. Sometimes people think that. But it's really just I don't like them much.