Does anyone have any proven strategies for talking your way out of answering uncomfortable questions? If all fails, I just state that I am exhausted quickly and am afraid of people until they prove to be safe for me. That is why I don't work. It is still better than saying I was mentally ill or even stating my exact diagnosis. There is no faster way of shooting yourself out of bounds than saying that. But I'd like to avoid saying anything really until I know who I am dealing with. The... I want to make it a goal to connect more with people ..read more

It's been a while since I have been on here... I have done things I thought I could never have done a year ago. I do Target drive-up, I go to Starbucks (order ahead only so far, no drive-thru yet!), I have gone to PetSmart once (with my sister and dog), went inside Target once (with my sister), and have gone inside of a couple of other restaurants when doing online order ahead. I have done all of that with my sister right beside me. I am getting used to Target drive-up and going to... It's been a while ..read more

Hi, does anyone know of meditation techniques/practises that I can use that help with breathing? I noticed at times I get the kind of anxiety that has to do with not breathing right and we don't seem to have any free meditation classes nowadays in my location. Thanks a lot for all the kinds of meditation practises you can share with me ..read more

I no sooner got over one social anxiety hurdle and experienced positive effects of new social/recreational endeavors than I do something to take me right back to square 1 again. I'm like the character in that nursery rhyme "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid." Here is the situation. This morning, I was feeling enthusiastic and in high spirits over discussing plans with the assistant program coordinator at the seniors' housing building where... Immature Response in Social Setting Making Me Anxious and Depressed ..read more

I used to visit this forum about 15 years ago, and a few times since then. I wanted to check it out again today, so I did a search for "social anxiety forum" in DuckDuckGo, expecting this to be one of the first results, but it was nowhere on the page. DDG uses Bing as its backend, so I tried using Bing directly. I searched "social anxiety support forum" and even "socialanxietysupport.com". SAS is nowhere to be seen. If you put the URL in quotes, it returns websites that link to this... This forum is completely absent in Bing search ..read more

Some backstory: I’ve had a long distance friend of 8 years now. Over the last 3 years feelings have developed and we both love each other more than friends(both girls). However, I feel deep down things won’t work between us because of location difference (she’s from South America) and although I love her country, it’s not a place where I’d want to live due to the economy. I’m also pretty introverted and have SA, so don’t see myself traveling on my own.. let alone moving to another country... Long distance friend is optimistic about future relationship together, but I’m not ..read more

Hey everyone. I'm Nora I'm a super old member but haven't been on for ages. I've been feeling a bit lost lately and here I am. I'd love to be able to connect with people again and share thoughts. Hope you have an awesome day ..read more

In my opinion, is a big factor in why I am in the Social Anxiety situation I am in now, at the age of 33. On previous threads I have created, the other big two, was Bullying/Social isolation in my school years and how it still haunts me, and my Adulthood Epilepsy/the Work complications it has brought about. Nevertheless, in my late teens/early 20s (between the ages of 16-22/23ish) when I was able to drive prior to/around the time of the development of my Epilepsy, I almost fell into a bit... My naivety about the duration of Friendships in my late Teens and early 20s ..read more

Does anyone here avoid social interactions because you’re afraid something awkward will happen, or you’ll get a negative reaction, and will keep ruminating over it again and again? Because I tend to do this. If I have to go somewhere and interact with someone to get something and it’s an unfamiliar place or I don’t know how the person will be, I keep putting it off or avoid doing it. When I go somewhere often and I’m familiar with the people there and I know they are friendly or polite, I... Afraid of social situations due to ruminating ..read more

Is it possible my OCD has taken over my personality? I've been worrying about moles and other skin stuff over the last month to point where the fear is going on around 80% of the time. When I'm not worrying I'm feeling bored like there's nothing to do. Almost like fear has become my hobby. Not sure what I should do ..read more