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Asking questions -- in a small talk situation with an acquaintance I don't know super well where I don't have a specific reason to ask a specific question -- has always been the hardest part of socializing for me. I'm okay with asking for help now (though I never did all the way through school...

I'm thankful that my Christmases have gradually downsized from having to see both sides of the extended family as a kid, to one side as a young adult, then fewer of them more erratically, then just immediate family the last few years, the hours of that visit shrinking a bit, and finally just me...

With family, personally I usually find we just don't speak the same language. Their favorite topics are pets, gardening, home renovation, people and travel. I don't have any pets, live in an apartment, don't know people and don't travel so there's not much I can contribute. Not drinking doesn't...

Keep in mind that people probably think you don't want to talk to them, so they think they're being polite by leaving you alone.

I decided to send xmas cards for the first time this year. I bought 4 of them, but so far I can only think of 2 people to send them to, heh. It seems like a good idea though, especially this year, to send those little tokens of connection.

My skin looked like pepperoni pizza when I was 20. And still a bit like it at 30. Much better at 40. Young skin is severely overrated unless you're lucky.

We are the first generation who can genuinely participate in conversations with dead people, simply by bumping old threads they participated in and quoting their posts. It's a good strategy for getting the last word in arguments.

You could just do it solo. But I'll stick to peaking over the edges of cliffs.

Miss you.

I think in this century we need to massively shift efforts from teaching people facts (which was important in the 20th century) to teaching people how to critically examine information and distinguish reality from fiction. In a world with unlimited information and unlimited disinformation at our...

250 of them are search engine spiders or other kinds of bots and not humans. 15 are people who were googling something totally unrelated to social anxiety that brought up an old thread here in their search results. 5 refuse to join unpopular forums, because that'd make them uncool. 4 were...

I'm more of a people displeaser, which is one of the reasons I try to avoid people. If I'm speaking at all, I'm probably going to be saying what I actually think. People-pleasing sounds like a great, amazingly useful skill to have -- as long as you can turn it on and off as needed.

Never been to a barber in my life. Can't imagine dealing with the awkward conversation. So why not save money by cutting it myself? It's not like there's anyone in my social life for me to impress, and it's easy to just keep it trimmed the same as ever.

I'm a month and a half from 40 and haven't done much with my life (no partner, few friends, poor, never been anywhere, etc). I waste a lot of energy [especially this year with 40 looming] worrying about getting old. But the only place worth living is the present. All the good days happen when...

[didn't mean this post to offend -- delete please]

Reminder to those who don't keep close track of holidays: today is national flakeybark day.

Sorry for posting this with so little notice, but I'd expected responses from another social anxiety forum (guess I underestimated my ability to repulse) and there doesn't seem to be much of a bay area population here. But anyhow, to quote what I posted over there...

Time and attention of one socially phobic geek (will negotiate quantity later). Relates best to people with no life/meatspace-friends/relationships. Hardly used, low mileage. Clean interior, minor blemishes on exterior. Runs well when approached by people. $0 obo. Must sell quickly. PM for details.

A week or so ago I tried out a new coping experiment. I was tired of how nerve-wracking it is to encounter people going the opposite direction when I walk around the lake. It's scary because I worry they'll say something and I'll offend them by freezing up or even responding awkwardly. The...

The leaf blower picked away at my brain, slowly and surely, like a chisel. It was a Friday like any other Friday. I sat entrapped in my apartment as the beast circled below for hours. I turned up the volume on my noise-canceling headphones, but it was no good, the whir remained incessant in the...