Texting!

Sometimes I have someone else do it. You can also decide to o do it, take a deep breath, count to 3 and open it. Sometimes that works for me. You don’t have to respond or make a commitment, you see if you can leave it open ended - I’ve done those things to help me with my social anxiety and adhd.

if you know for certain you don't want to hang out, open the message and answer something like "hey thanks for the offer but I have other plans/not in the best space to hang out this week/I'm having a quiet weekend in. maybe another time!" Otherwise, it could be a great opportunity to get to know them better and you might surprise yourself! If one-on-one hang out is too daunting, invite one or two more people, maybe mutual friends or coworkers? and just have a short hangout like go out for coffee and a snack, or to a shop. It can help to relearn the whole "leaving on read" culture. for the most part in the adult world, someone will open a message, and then reply later or even a day or two later when they time or the right words. otherwise even just a "I'll get back to you on that later!" is fine and polite

@scandianxiety

I have similar experience with texting. With social media taking over lives, i have found much help by setting clear boundaries online. Eg. Keep two seperate texting/whatsapp numbers to have your personal space. I also dont attend to text requests in odd hours (late nights) or when at work.

You may clearly mention to your aquintances or even strangers the time when you can comfortably text. Sometimes requests can be made to make calls, if something important needs to be talked about.

As far i understand this 'anxiety', textual conversations no matter how convinient, miss out on a very imp aspect of non-verbal cues. In such exchanges tone of the voice is not there and there lies plenty of room for misinterpretation. It has nothing to do with social skills. It's just some people are more comfortable on certain modes of communication. Period.

Thanks guys