I should never leave the house.

How does everyone else handle constantly revisiting embarrassing moments in your mind?

You see, I went down to the bank yesterday to open a checking account (I know, I should have done this years ago) and when I told this to the teller, she gave me a weird look. She then asked, "How old are you?" I said that I am 23,and I know that I look young. The teller said, "Yeah, I know you look very young." The embarrassing thing was that one of the tellers next to her was someone I graduated win from high school. My former classmate heard everything that was being said. I felt so stupid.

I deal with constantly reliving my embarrassing moments by distracting myself with something else. Don't let it get to you; they've probably already forgotten about it.

I wouldn't be too embarrassed by that I'm 30 and still get asked why I'm not in school by store clerks.

I find that if there is anything that is true--- avoiding leaving the house WILL absolutely make you be more affected the few times you do decide to go out to get something done.

If you go out frequently, you might not care as much about being embarrassed; you might not feel embarrassed at all, actually.
But staying indoors for a long time before going out to do something necessary; you're hyper-aware of the situation-- in panic mode about every little sound and glance.
I've noticed this myself.
Doesn't make it any easier... but I try to remind myself to go out more often so I'm not as freaked out when I need to get something done (maybe).

Im 26 and people always tell me I look like im in my teens! I remember once I went to this bar with a group of friends and the bouncer actually said " what are you 15?" ..."ID?" but didnt card any of my friends! I could have died! but now that Iam a little older it doesn't bother me much. my whole family looks young. I rather have a baby face then look 40 when I'm really in my 20's so consider yourself lucky.

And, as far as embarrassing momemts go. I am a walking mess. Seriously. There was a time in my life were I used alcohol to cope with my SA so theres a good part of my life that I wish I could take back. I often catch myself thinking about stuff and I cringe. I just accept that I cannot change that part of my life and try to move on. Everyone has embarrassing stories. Makes for interesting stories!

It gets better as you get older. The embarrasing moments start to blur together until you realised it doesn't matter. I once made an idiot of myself in front of a girl and when I met her later she didn't even remember me. I didn't remind her.

I've embarrassed myself in front of people I'll never see again. I try to remember that whenever the memories come to mind.

I have to leave the house at least once a day but once is enough. I go into town to purchase my nicotine fix and a newspaper to keep up with national and world news but I avoid interacting with others. I have been embarrased so many times I think everybody with a pulse has had a time of embarrasment. I can't remember things other people did thru the years and I used to be a lot more social than I am now. I wouldn't worry about it.

Shy_Gurl2007 said:

How does everyone else handle constantly revisiting embarrassing moments in your mind?

You see, I went down to the bank yesterday to open a checking account (I know, I should have done this years ago) and when I told this to the teller, she gave me a weird look. She then asked, "How old are you?" I said that I am 23,and I know that I look young. The teller said, "Yeah, I know you look very young." The embarrassing thing was that one of the tellers next to her was someone I graduated win from high school. My former classmate heard everything that was being said. I felt so stupid.

Click to expand...

Looking young is nothing to be embarrassed about, well ok maybe if you looked like a 6 month old because a walking talking baby is kinda creepy.

As far as the checking account? That's no big deal, I opened my first one when I was 26 and meeting someone from school? They're a bank teller, it's not like they're rich and successful (nothing against anyone that's a bank teller I'm sure you're fine people), they have a regular job just like most people.

Know what's great about doing something embarrassing? You have a funny story for other people.

When you're on a date and they screw up doing something and you want to make them feel better you can say "well did I ever tell you the time that I so and so"

Don't worry about doing embarrassing things in life, worry about not doing them.

WeirdyMcGee said:

I find that if there is anything that is true--- avoiding leaving the house WILL absolutely make you be more affected the few times you do decide to go out to get something done.

If you go out frequently, you might not care as much about being embarrassed; you might not feel embarrassed at all, actually.
But staying indoors for a long time before going out to do something necessary; you're hyper-aware of the situation-- in panic mode about every little sound and glance.
I've noticed this myself.
Doesn't make it any easier... but I try to remind myself to go out more often so I'm not as freaked out when I need to get something done (maybe).

Click to expand...

Well said. I've been there too ::

When I opened my checking account, I was older than normal too and I went with my mom! To my right, there was a girl who I used to go to skool with and she looked at me. I was so embarrassed. I can only wonder what she was thinking when she saw me. Shy_Gurl, you're not alone

If I can't fall asleep, that's the reason why, memories of embarrassing situations. Why do they always have to come at night?! Everyone say it like that for them also. I'll often think of some random memory from high school which I thought I've forgotten at 4 am... What the hell???

I'm 25 and don't have my driving liscense yet and it's a big deal for everyone. Everytime I need to show two identity pieces it's always the medical card and driver's liscense. So everytime I tell them I don't have any driver liscense they look at me like i'm an alien. I'm not getting a car anytime soon, why do I need my liscense for?

Newtype said:

When I opened my checking account, I was older than normal too and I went with my mom! To my right, there was a girl who I used to go to skool with and she looked at me. I was so embarrassed. I can only wonder what she was thinking when she saw me. Shy_Gurl, you're not alone

Click to expand...

I was told by the person that I was old enough to come alone.

Honestly, I swear - lol. Sometimes out of the blue a completely random memory will pop up and I just swear under my breath to push it out of my head (it's kind of amusing in a strange way) then I hurriedly think of something else. I'll distract myself like DeadManWalking mentioned by reading something or listening to music or busying myself with whatever.

Don't feel too bad though. I'm 35 and don't have a checking account. And I'm still dealing with embarrassing moments. I'm able to put on a mask when around others and fake "normal" well enough that people don't even realize how uncomfortable I am. But once I get home all I do is think about how others looked at me, what I said to someone, how awkward I felt, etc - even if nothing embarrassing happened, it still embarrasses me. If that makes sense.

The last thing I'll say (which you no doubt already know) is that these moments will continue to happen. There will be more awkward encounters in the future, but taking these babysteps like getting an account are a good thing. And brave. Your former classmate and people like her will never understand or appreciate your complexity. Your shyness gives you insights that they'll never comprehend. Just try to remember the next time it happens that you're a unique class of person, and keep up the good fight.

I get you've aged well a lot.