Just curious for who all here suffers from social anxiety.
Yeah I got that shit.
I have known I have social anxiety, I saw the doctor about it years ago, although I think I downplayed how extreme it is for me. Taking one of the online tests today made me realize how I feel isn't exactly normal.
Sometimes its a bit hard to tell what is normal and abnormal with this sort of thing. I mean it is fairly common to be shy and social phobia at the end of the day is extreme shyness. Is it close enough to plain old shyness to be considered just shyness or is it a totally different pathology all together? These sort of questions bother me a lot.
Just curious how many others here deal with crap like this?
Deal?
I still don't really know how to deal with these feeling really and I've seen lots of mental health professionals. I used to drink to deal with it sometimes I still do. Although I have gotten a lot better though after a lot of hard work and teeth grinding. I mean I know some positive phsycology techniques that help me when I am in a wild panic. I use something called the Sedona method which is extremely helpful for when I am REALLY having a hard ime calming myself down.
Its hard to say where exactly my progress has come from I think its a combination of a lot of things. I mean I got a therapist who I get on with real well I think that helps a lot. He's help me learn how to really challenge anxious thoughts in my head. And I have a lot more to learn but I am feeling better and doing well. It was important to me to differntiate between trying to force my self to change my way of thinking and simply considering the idea that my way of thinking might be wrong.
It also really helped me to change my life style a little bit at a time. Like maybe one day I'd cut down on my computer usage and read a book for a couple hours. I mean I'd cut down on things that I knew I was using to distract myself from my feelings (like smoking pot say) and just do something else for a couple of hrs. It really sucked at times but those shitty feelings need some attention or else their not going to go away. It was also really great because I learned some of the feeling I were trying to erase were really good.
Another thing that I've been doing is exposing myself to thing that scare me little by little. It feel great challenging your fears and succeding feels great, but I wouldn't go to crazy or else you'll have a panic attack.
And I mean I am still struggling with all this. But I feel a lot better and feel fortunate that managed to get this far. But it wasn't a miracle it just doing simple things easy things like wondering "Ok maybe I am wrong about me" can actuate a change. Its not something that happens over night, but it doesn't have to feel like getting a root canal on your feelings.
And it is entirely possible that I willback slide a few steps but then the only thing to do is get up again (howeverlong that takes) and keep walking.
I mean there is more I can say but I am having a hard time think of it now.
I am sleepy.