Coping With Anxiety During Confrontation Help
I'm an introvert, but I like being social and interacting with others. I like to be open and engage in things but I get anxious over approaching/confronting things. Being open has become easier, but being genuinely honest about my feelings towards others is a huge challenge because I can never seem to get the words out without stuttering, losing my breath, my hands trembling, and/or losing eye contact.
The situation: I want to approach someone I consider a friend and openly tell him that I genuinely care for him as a person even if I might be awkward or aloof at times. We're not exactly close yet but it seems like I'm easing in and this could be a good step for us to talk better. When I think about approaching him about this I get anxious about when and how I could do it. I know what I want to do and it shouldn't be that hard when I'm actually faced with taking action, but how can I lessen or ease my anxiety during the confrontation itself? I've never done something like this and I can't help but overthink. I don't want to text him about this, I want to properly express my feelings as his friend and ease the tension between us. We're both pretty awkward people and our personalities haven't fully clashed well enough yet to where I can casually hit him up. I've accepted that I have no control over his response; it's just DOING the talking first that weighs me down to think about.
Advice on confrontation anxiety? Good ways to cope in the moment?
@florastray
Will sound very cliche but breathe. In many situations when we're super anxious we actually forget how to breathe. We have the symptoms you mentioned and we kinda get tense and stop breathing so well, we sometimes even hyperventilate. So please breathe! Even if you do a big sigh he'll just think you might be a bit tired. So is a good way to calm down :)
Another thing you can do is distract yourself. I can't talk for everyone else but when I'm in a situation like that I play with an object, might an acessory that I have, a small stress ball, a water bottle, anything really. Because my anxiety will focous on the object and I can be more calm while talking.
Now in terms of speech, what about a list? Plan everything you want to say in topics so while you talk to him if you get lost or the idea scares you, you just look and be like "ok is ok, this is the first step, everything is planned here, I'll be fine".
Remember your friend isn't something terrifying aswell :b he'll love to see what you have to say! In fact I'm sure he already knows how much you care so hearing to your beautiful words will sure make him happy :)
Best of luck! 
i have done some breathing exercises sometimes