I shouldn't post this;

Recently I've been doing things to help my SA, but talking to people has not progressed at all whatsoever and makes me wonder how I'm gonna deal with people throughout my life without having some sort of a panic attack.

So how do you deal with this when you feel nothing is progressing?

Well what I would say is, first of all, forgive yourself. People with SA often have very hard moments to deal with, and the only way to get through them is to forgive yourself, and try to find something to learn from.

Also, sometimes it's frustrating when we think we are making progress and then something terrible happens, and then we think, "Wow, I'm as bad as ever and I will be like this for life." Well that's not the case. Sometimes we have bumps in the road, and as we are ironing out our problems, sometimes some pretty big wrinkles pop up, but just continue ironing.

I know it's hard to understand, but if you stay positive and keep trying to get better, YOU WILL. It may not seem like it, but every day that you're trying is a day you are getting better. But sometimes the bumps in the road blind us to the progress we really have made. So, just keep going and know that this is not a life sentence, as long as you are willing to put forth the effort and discipline, as well as bracing for and tolerating the bad stuff that will come along.

just staying positive isn't enough. You need a reason to keep that positivity up. The best way to do that is to find something you are passionate about. which obviously is hard to do, but still.. I found something that helped me when i was 25. I wasn't passionate about it but I found it so much fun that it helped me a lot. I started travelling alot, especially going to anime cons even though i didn't like anime that much. I did love cartoons as a kid though, as well as the fact that I liked drawing and that was enough of an excuse. So fortunately I lived close by to lots of these things and just kept going to them. The fact that I was travelling, road trips, having adventures, etc. That was making my life so much more interesting. I always went alone of course, I didn't have friends. So because I was exposing myself to people in a social environment all the time, it was easier to follow the other standard advice people give you. You know, like practicing talking to people, keeping positive, having something to talk about (something interesting always happened at cons and that gave me stuff to say at work). The more I put myself in those situations the more I wanted to be one of the normal people out there having fun. So soon it got to the point where I forced myself to talk to a girl because I just wanted so badly to be a normal guy. That was such a defining moment that it snowballed from there that I'd try harder, and it became exciting.

Now I'm not saying you should do this but something along those lines. Find some kind of distraction that really makes you happy and makes your life interesting too. The more you are out there the easier it gets and the more you feel confident about talking to people because you actually have stuff to talk about. Obviously don't go overboard and only talk about yourself but you know what i mean.

As you are doing this, just keep in mind the most important thing is that it's the journey, not any end goal, that is the fun part. The experiences you are getting is what you are after. This really goes a long way in keeping that positive feeling. After a while you will forget about your troubles and then it will happen.. suddenly you will end up with more friends, a girl, and a happier life.. and you didn't do anything crazy to get there, you just tried your best to have fun.

I completely understand the way you feel because that's exactly the way I am & how I feel when I'm around nearly anyone other than my mom.

I had to have dinner with the WHOLE family the other night, including aunt, uncle, cousin and I had to meet my sister's boyfriend as well.

It was brutal. I barely said a word the whole time. My cousin is like 9 years old, I've barely said a word to her, her whole life. And the boyfriend, I seriously couldn't even look him in the eye.

..................