doogiebklyn
Member
Greetings,
I finally came clean to my gf and sister after years of struggling with Social Anxiety disorder. They were both very understanding and it better explained my behavior to them. In my career, I have a sales/marketing job in a Fortune 500 company, nobody there knows. They probably just think I'm strange and anti-social. When I attend sale conferences, as soon as I can, I sneak up to my room and order room service or come up with excuses why I can't attend the social parts of the agenda. My attitude has changed now, I don't really care who finds out, now that my gf knows and still loved me. I have done nothing wrong, I am not a bad person. I have a neurological disees that I have no control over.
Anyway, I am also an art photographer, you can see me work at www.douglasljungkvist.com and I want to start a photography project about Social Anxiety with the objective of raising public awareness, remove stigma, and show some faces of people that have SA. Of course I will be in the project myself. Hopefully there are many more that are ready to come out. I know it won't be easy, how will people react, what will they say? Art can be a powerful way to highlight social issues. Lauren Greenfield's book "Thin" about eating disorders is a good expample of that.
My creative approach would be to meet fellow sufferers of social anxiety and set up fake scenes that shows their greatest fear i.e. standing online, cocktail party, public speaking etc. I want all the "extras" that are part of the shoot to also have social anxiety. This way it's safe and we're all in the same boat. And maybe we can laugh at ourselves and address our fears in a controlled, friendly, and support environment. Anyway, if you think it's a good idea and would like to participate, send me an e-mail to [email protected] with a bit of information about yourself, your worse anxiety and where you live. The first shoot would probably be in New York or somewhere in the Northeast. But eventually I would like to visit cities in different parts of the country for this project. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Douglas
I finally came clean to my gf and sister after years of struggling with Social Anxiety disorder. They were both very understanding and it better explained my behavior to them. In my career, I have a sales/marketing job in a Fortune 500 company, nobody there knows. They probably just think I'm strange and anti-social. When I attend sale conferences, as soon as I can, I sneak up to my room and order room service or come up with excuses why I can't attend the social parts of the agenda. My attitude has changed now, I don't really care who finds out, now that my gf knows and still loved me. I have done nothing wrong, I am not a bad person. I have a neurological disees that I have no control over.
Anyway, I am also an art photographer, you can see me work at www.douglasljungkvist.com and I want to start a photography project about Social Anxiety with the objective of raising public awareness, remove stigma, and show some faces of people that have SA. Of course I will be in the project myself. Hopefully there are many more that are ready to come out. I know it won't be easy, how will people react, what will they say? Art can be a powerful way to highlight social issues. Lauren Greenfield's book "Thin" about eating disorders is a good expample of that.
My creative approach would be to meet fellow sufferers of social anxiety and set up fake scenes that shows their greatest fear i.e. standing online, cocktail party, public speaking etc. I want all the "extras" that are part of the shoot to also have social anxiety. This way it's safe and we're all in the same boat. And maybe we can laugh at ourselves and address our fears in a controlled, friendly, and support environment. Anyway, if you think it's a good idea and would like to participate, send me an e-mail to [email protected] with a bit of information about yourself, your worse anxiety and where you live. The first shoot would probably be in New York or somewhere in the Northeast. But eventually I would like to visit cities in different parts of the country for this project. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Douglas
