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Social anxiety (or phobia?)

User Profile: BossXD0
BossXD0 January 28th, 2020

Hi, i'm new here. To start off i was anxious even trying to talk to a listener here and posting here made makes me anxious too, but i feel brave today.
Let's start when i was kid, the trauma always begins there right? I was always void of social contact, almost my entire childhood and one time i did have some, but the person ignored me and played with my sister instead. I understand now that they were all young and stuff, but still, i don't think that set a good impression in my mind as a kid. Other than that, i didn't have much social interaction as a kid, i was alone in my mind, hey at least i had a good imaginination.

So then we left that house, and we went to another one, the entire time i was there (about 2 years, i think we got there when i was 10) i had no social contact other than my family, none.
So we had to leave that place because of a few reasons, i'm not gonna go into the details. We were forced to start traveling full time in an RV, a really messed up RV. And i did make a few friends finally, all temporary and most of them were young/fake/didn't care, there were a few real ones that i couldn't keep. So then i gave up trying to make friends, like actually going outside, because it made me incredibly anxious and no friend was long term, a month at the most.
Being an introvert, i like to have a few friends that are very close and constantly making new ones i didn't know was painful, so that's another reason i gave up on it.

So now, i will go into how i act now in social situations after you heard my "sob story"
I don't make eye contact, ever. It feels like their eyes are staring into my soul and i probably seem really shifty because i will literally look behind me just to occupy how anxious i feel and fidget constantly. When people do seem interested in talking to me, i become an endless bucket of information and facts that won't stop talking, so i feel like most people would get irritated at that.
Suprisingly, i don't get all that anxious in crowds unless they're compact or it's in an unfimilar place, otherwise i know that no one really cares about me. But in 1 on 1 is when i feel like i'm walking through tar or if it's a smaller group of people.
When i go for walks in a campground, i avoid people, if there is a person walking their dog, i will take a wide arch around them or just wait for them to pass by, it's really bad. And speaking of which, i avoid all social situations to begin with and i avoid being near people.

I'm sure other people can relate in some way, but i highly doubt anyone is in the same situation i'm in right now, with RVing and being raised in isolation for the most part (it was in a rural area on a col da sack).

Anyways, hi 7 cups community.

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User Profile: luxx454
luxx454 January 29th, 2020

@BossXD0 Thank you for sharing even though it might have been umcomfortable. It makes sense for your social anxiety growing up in an RV with little if any social interaction. Along the fact, you value close friendships but growing up you had to leave the real friends or met many fake friends. And I agree it's tiring to make new friends, friendship takes effort and it's hard to even know if they will stay. This is why you feel it's hard to make eye contact, you avoid people on the campground, and during social interactions, you fear making the other person irritated or being judged. And to be honest, I am similar and I am sure many others as well. So many people come and go. So many people judge us easily. And we get anxious when we don't know what will happen, but I am learning to take it easy. To not be so hard on myself. To slowly let go of what others think because in the very end, I want to focus my life more on myself. And you know when we slowly learn to accept ourselves, it becomes easier to look around at people and be okay if they judge us, if they leave us, and all that good stuff. I am in no way perfect and still have social anxiety, but I believe you and I can work on this together

1 reply
User Profile: BossXD0
BossXD0 OP January 30th, 2020

@luxx454

If anything it was more relieving to talk about my problem and voice it to people that i know care, i would like to work on it with you if you would like to.
Another thing is that i know people probably don't care about me, but i'm anxious anyways, sometimes i don't even have any thoughts of "they're judging me" i just feel anxious, i hope you know what i mean. I'm glad you understand so well. I already have focused on myself quite a lot, and i have gotten a lot better in other things, but this has to be the one problem that has persisted and i've avoided, i know i have a problem but sometimes i don't feel like i do because of how much i stay inside. Well, to be a little more positive, my pc is very customized because of how much time i spend on it (software wise not hardware), so goodie.

1 reply
User Profile: luxx454
luxx454 January 30th, 2020

@BossXD0 No I'd love for us to both work on our social anxiety, and honestly you're right it's so easy to be irrational, we know others probably don't think that much about us but we continue to think about things and feel nervous. But I don't know what do you think would help us manage better our social anxiety? Practice? Talking it out? Tell me your ideas :)

1 reply
User Profile: BossXD0
BossXD0 OP February 11th, 2020

@luxx454

Thanks for understanding. We can talk it out, to start off. Baby steps, you know?

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