Anyone else have the same experience with social anxiety?
Hi there! I'm not sure if this is under social anxiety exactly but I'm wonderinf If anyone else feels similarly.
Not sure if this makes sense but I actually am comfortable/less nervous when talking to new people or with people I'm unlikely to encounter again compared to interacting with people who know me or are people I might come across more regularly. For example I feel less nervous around cashiers and salespeople in stores I do not frequent compared to those who are already familiar with me but do not exactly know me; or It feels less overwhelming talking in front of a larger audience of people who I'm unfamiliar with, than let's say: a classroom of people or between coworkers I see nearly everyday.
My level of comfort is probably best summarized this way:
Ok interacting with: People I'm close friends with, or complete strangers
More anxious around: acquaintances?
Perhaps it is the notion that I feel less likely to be judged by those who I might meet fleetingly in comparison to those who I am acquainted with but do not know me that well?
I don't know if that makes any sense but if any of you have a similar experience, please do feel free to share! I'm interested in seeing what others think and how they deal with it.
@bugz73
I have kind of experienced the same kind of thing, in school, I don't talk to anyone except my close friends. Even after school, outside the building, I am very uncomfortable talking to anyone I am likely to see again. Even buying something like stationary in a shop that I frequent, I stutter and mumble, or ask someone else to talk to the person.
But then when I meet my parent's colleagues kids or something somewhere, and I probably won't have to see them again, I am more comfortable talking to them, and I won't hide in a corner and read. Even if I have to talk in front of a lare group pf people, I will be fine as long as I never have to see them again, but I don't feel comfortable speaking in class, or performing in a school play with people who I know, but not very well.
I normally don't have to deal with it, though, because everyone in my school considers me a quiet bookworm loner (which I am, but not only that) so I don't have to try and talk to them. I don'y know if it helps, but it is very comforting to know that someone else feels the same way I do, and that I am not the only one.
Totally
