I have terrible social anxiety. I hate being in a group larger than maybe 3 without getting freaked out. I go to parties occasionally and I try to hide alone or get super drunk to be able to deal with the atmosphere. Both practices make me look like a fucking creep. I can't even see bands anymore because of it.
Go it alone. I hate everybody and every fucking thing.
Social Anxiety
12sometimes i push myself to talk with people. sometimes i don't. i tend to let people come to me and then from there it goes ok. a couple of drinks helps sometimes but not always.
i hate networking or going to events where i'm supposed to mingle. i would probably have a more successful business if i did a better job of all of that crap, but man do i hate doing it...
i hate networking or going to events where i'm supposed to mingle. i would probably have a more successful business if i did a better job of all of that crap, but man do i hate doing it...
Social Anxiety
13bellulah wrote:i'm 29 and i still get in total shutdown, everyone-is-looking-at-me, everyone-is-making-fun-of-me panic attack mode in crowded places.
Yes, well, you're a giant, enthusiastic pitcher holding a pitcher. That's off-putting right there. Nobody knows where to look, if they should hold out their glass or what?
And it doesn't help that you usually enter a room by crashing through a wall. Use a goddamn door once in a while and we can all relax.
Jesus.
Obligatory thread content: I can fake being good at socializing, but I'm not actually good at it, and that has cost me in a variety of ways for a long time. Not as much as it would have cost me if I didn't fake it now and again - but it's truly costly to be nonplussed-to-misanthropic at all times. I don't recommend it unless you're a cop.
-r
Social Anxiety
14I can second Simmo's saying that smoking weed every day will make it worse if you do have it. I went through that a few years ago. Weed makes me really uptight and paranoid, which is why I don't smoke it anymore.
I'm pretty much a loner by choice. I think I used to have social anxiety more back when I cared more about what people thought of me.
Although I know it sounds priggish or boorish to put it this way, I've largely given up caring whether random people like me or not. The only people whose opinions I value are myself and those who know me well and who have a non-superficial standard for judging me.
I tend to spend a lot of time alone just because I'm addicted to reading, but when I am at parties or at social lunches, I try to be as friendly as possible. But, on the whole, I would consider myself somewhat of a loner, and definitely not someone who appreciates meaningless chit-chat or networking. As far as getting up and giving speeches and whatnot, I used to care much more about how I was perceived than I do now. I think that along with a sense of self-confidence has come a real sense of comfort with others' negative views about me as long as my own self-perception is satisfactory.
Most people are driven to unbearable boredom by their own company, so they flock to groups of people who have the same problem and their boredom is momentarily relieved. These days, it seems like it's a really eccentric lifestyle choice to want to spend a Friday night reading a book, but it's what I've always enjoyed.
The moment one is struck by the fact that so few people have worthwhile opinions on anything of any importance is when you begin to find it ludicrous how much time most people spend contemplating how others' view them.
I'm pretty much a loner by choice. I think I used to have social anxiety more back when I cared more about what people thought of me.
Although I know it sounds priggish or boorish to put it this way, I've largely given up caring whether random people like me or not. The only people whose opinions I value are myself and those who know me well and who have a non-superficial standard for judging me.
I tend to spend a lot of time alone just because I'm addicted to reading, but when I am at parties or at social lunches, I try to be as friendly as possible. But, on the whole, I would consider myself somewhat of a loner, and definitely not someone who appreciates meaningless chit-chat or networking. As far as getting up and giving speeches and whatnot, I used to care much more about how I was perceived than I do now. I think that along with a sense of self-confidence has come a real sense of comfort with others' negative views about me as long as my own self-perception is satisfactory.
Most people are driven to unbearable boredom by their own company, so they flock to groups of people who have the same problem and their boredom is momentarily relieved. These days, it seems like it's a really eccentric lifestyle choice to want to spend a Friday night reading a book, but it's what I've always enjoyed.
The moment one is struck by the fact that so few people have worthwhile opinions on anything of any importance is when you begin to find it ludicrous how much time most people spend contemplating how others' view them.
Gay People Rock
Social Anxiety
15I used to go to parties and feel very out of place, especially if I didn't know that many people.
Then I realized, I was out of place.. I hate most parties. In many group situations I'm totally fine, but generally, I just don't enjoy being around large groups of strangers, and I'm fine with that fact.
Ben
Then I realized, I was out of place.. I hate most parties. In many group situations I'm totally fine, but generally, I just don't enjoy being around large groups of strangers, and I'm fine with that fact.
Ben
Social Anxiety
16nerblybear wrote:I'm pretty much a loner
"I'm a loner Dottie, a rebel"
Available in hit crimson or surprising process this calculator will physics up your kitchen
Social Anxiety
17Eh, its really easy just to stop doing a lot of the things that make you most uncomfortable--like parties for me--but that really narrows your life down and its fairly easy to start getting a lot more wingnutted from there. Deviant activities are a lot easier to get into when you remove some social functions from your normal operation, and I'm talking about the dangerous shit as well as the fun "punk rock" stuff.
I don't know. My friends usually only become good friends after about 2-3 years of straight contact, and there are a lot of people, at work especially, that I feel like I will always be acutely uncomfortable talking to, even on a regular basis. Which is incredibly distracting.
Like some OCD folks (which I am not, as near as I can tell, though some visual things can make me feel claustrophobic almost) I have a "safety phrase." It's about the comfort of routine (see baseball player glove-moves) and something of a sentence-long meditation. Use in onslaughts of panic.
"Death rides a pale cow." Yes, the dead milkmen.
Although, its hard to tell weather any of this is actually effective or just a band-aid fix.
I don't know, become a writer or an artist? Lots of times these things can have an up side, a trigger of an awareness that more comfortable people lack.
I don't know. My friends usually only become good friends after about 2-3 years of straight contact, and there are a lot of people, at work especially, that I feel like I will always be acutely uncomfortable talking to, even on a regular basis. Which is incredibly distracting.
Like some OCD folks (which I am not, as near as I can tell, though some visual things can make me feel claustrophobic almost) I have a "safety phrase." It's about the comfort of routine (see baseball player glove-moves) and something of a sentence-long meditation. Use in onslaughts of panic.
"Death rides a pale cow." Yes, the dead milkmen.
Although, its hard to tell weather any of this is actually effective or just a band-aid fix.
I don't know, become a writer or an artist? Lots of times these things can have an up side, a trigger of an awareness that more comfortable people lack.