A Place to Introduce Yourself

[Kezada]

my turn, hi im 17 years old and i come from luton, i've sufferd from social phobia since i was 5-6 or sumfin, its really shit. i also suffer from OCD, paranoia, insomnia depression (countsellor finks its bi-polar) and ADHD/ADD? dunno lol, maybe.

been a member since april but never cud be assed 2 post untill this week, i like it here tho. its kool

peeeeece

1love,Kezada

 

[mexwmn]

Hola Everybody

I am a 35 yrs old woman, with social anxiety, as many of the people on this forum, I have been "shy" since my early years of life, and when i was a teenager is when i started to feel the heavy weight of this, when i had to talk in the group on my school assigments, some were good enough to obtain a good score, but sadly it become worst as i become older, obtaining poor scores on my collegue years always when a public speaking was involved, was always a very scaring moments, shivering voice, shaking hands, looking green,coldness, very frustating.
I never had boyfriend, i never experienced that beauty stage of the youth, as other youngs enjoyed. i have been always restricted by my fear to the people. and developing bitterness and envy to the people that are free of fears and can do the things that i can not do.
I married 2 years ago, with a man that i met on the internet, was the only way for me to meet a man. And to save me from the mexican social pressure of being unmarried an a old age.
He is antisocial guy also, he was alone as me at the age of 35, is the one that is considered as Nerd-antisocial, rejected by the regular american woman( he's northamerican), but of course I understand him, some of his ways. he loves me, and I respect him as a person, but i am so bitter because all my life frustations that i have had, that i can not express romantic feelings very well. but will be good enough as to stay both for a long life together.
Because this marrige, i force myself to a change of life at my old age, involving a change of country, coming to a more agressive society, more demanding for communicative and good developed personalities, that are not afraid to deal with people and groups of people, it knocks me down!
I stay 1 year stuck in home reading newspapers, with my husband pressure on me to find a job, and i was paralized by my fear of job entreviews.
After one year of thinking, I found braveness i don't from where and by luck I found a job, mediocre for my desires and for my husband and family, but good enough for my fear fighting effort.
Now there, becasue I have professional knowledge from a previous job in mexico...I would want to jump to a better position, that fits better to me....and it appears, is there right now at my hands reach...BUT my social anxiety do not allows me to apply to it and progress. I have the knowledge more than anybody in my office, but I have a fear for the job interview and to deal with people, is for a Lead position.

I barely did it on my job interview for my actual job,because my manager was not going to hire me because "i was nervous on the interview" my voice was shivering a little at the end, but other boss demanded to my interviewer to hire me because my pro-knowledge, but i would not have job righ now without teh help of that other person.

The fear does not allow me to grow, and is affecting my professional life and life itself...

Does somebody have overcome this social anxiety problem with sucess??? I would like to hear how to eliminate it...

For the young people of this forum.....I wish indeed that all of you can be more dearing to find help right now that are youngs, and not to waste certain things as i have waste until my age....I never read about this or never was concious about this problem when i was young, and i wish to have had more support, but all of you have a long time in the future still to be suscessful over this.

I am spanish speaker, learning recently english, so excuse my grammar errors.tks

 

[RoosterCogburn]

Hiii..
I decided to look for another website for my social phobia after another, I will leave unmetioned, one kicked me off for saying the wrong things. They run the forum like a totalitarian state, I swear it.

Anyways it's been 6 months since I got kicked out and now I am incredibly bored as summer school has ended today. I also have to start a new school come September so I need all the assurance and help I can get. Pew... very scared. I also wrote my English Provincial today and am going to be a nervous wreck until I get the results back.

I doubt anyone's going to read this but I always hate the #1 post anyways. I post alot but then I kicked off forums. I am notorious for it. I got kicked off IMDB.com's forum; that's actually quite an achievement.

 

[mysticamor]

Hi everyone, I'm Jacquie. I'm 18 and from Australia. I just made my first post over at the Australia section. I just wanted to say hi to everyone here and that yeah I'm another person that suffers a lot from social anxiety. I've been suffering it for about 3 years now. Anyway, I hope I get to know everyone here.

 

[Claireabell]

Hi

Hello Everybody,
I'm new. My name is Claire and I am 31 years old. I llive in Bristol, UK. I have been shy all my life but found it to be a real problem in my late teens/early 20's. Diagnosed myself with SP about 7 years ago.

I am hoping to make new friends as I find it really hard to do so in everyday life. I am due to start college in September which scares the life out of me. I work part time (care). I am married and have a five year old daughter, something that I thought I would never do. Look forward to getting to know you.

 

[breeze81]

Hi, I just joined this site have been looking around at information on Social anxiety for awhile and most people say talking to others help them with dealing with it, so i figured it's worth a try. I'm 23 years started noticing symptoms when i was about 17, before then i was a very social person. I am married with 2 kids and find it hard to do everyday things other mothers and wives do as a normal routine. My oldest child is now in school and i can't even take her to school by myself i have to have my husband do it or have him go with me. I don't go to the store by myself or anywhere else, thankfully i have a very supportive husband to do things with me. I'm so afraid of doing something that will catch someones attention i mainly stay at home unless i have to get out. I've seperated myself from everyone else and have trouble even keeping a job. I've had one job that i kept for a month and have had trouble with finding another i would be comfortable enough to do. I haven't went to any doctors or been diagnosed but i can defiantly relate with other post i have read here. I'm really glad i found this forum and look forward to talking with others like myself. It's nice to know i'm not the only one with these problems and there is hope out there.

 

[allanboy]

hey there, new to these forums
Discovered them like 2 weeks ago, and was just lurking, something happened today and i decided to finally register.

well, i´m 17, found about social phobia and personality disorders like one month ago. Was really surprised by the symptons, matched perfectly with me. Also for schyzophrenia(sp?), found about it 2 months ago though. Been searching about it ever since.

thats about it

 

[coolguy2005]

Hey there

Hi

I'm a 20 year old male who has had social phobia all his life.

I started paying careful attention to it only a few years back.

I asked myself questions such as: why am i afraid to look people in the eye, why am i afraid to hold conversations with people, why am i ashamed of the way i look/dress even when others tell me i look great, why do I always worry about other people looking at me and judging me?

These are the kinds of questions that haunted me to the point I got 'crazy'. A few days ago I googled this condition and found this wonderful site.

I can relate to everyone on here without a doubt. I look foward to working with everyone here to solve our problems.

As a matter of fact, I've organized a daily 'chat meeting' session at 12:00 a.m eastern on here. It's where we meet and talk about our problems, and design daily goals to improve ourselves.

I look forward to getting to know each and everyone of you. Good things to come.

 

[inthesameboat]

just found this page

Well I had no Idea there was so many people like me out there in the world, It really sucks to live with sp it feels like your some kind of freak. Iam now 25 and I now realize that my life is passing me by year by year and I have hardly any friends, never had a girlfriend, and it doesnt seem to get any better. I am not an unattractive man but everytime I have an oppurtunity to meet someone I just clam up and never can be myself. For example this weekend my roomate had a few girls spend the night from out of state. I was so nervous about them coming I tried everything I could to find a way to be some place else. They finally arrived and I actually liked one of them but my sp kicked in and the only thing that i could think of is to get so drunk out of my mind so I could lose the fear of going out. needless to say because of my sp I blew another chance to meet a very attractive girl that I thought kinda of liked me but what else is new.

 

[nerdgirl178]

Hello i am 23, suffereing from SA since I was 15ish or so. I am an Art History, I like Art, and I like History.

 

[inthesameboat]

a little about me

Iam 25 year old male who lives in las vegas nevada, I have social phobia probably my whole life and didnt even know it. I just found this website looking for answers to my shitty life. Iam pretty active and normal on the outside but really in the inside Iam complete mess. I have had no luck with the opposite sex for my whole life now and it has come to a point where I think Iam just going to give up. I have done alot in my life so far traveled all over the world been in the armed forces, been a personal trainer, managed a health club , and meet alot of people but when it comes to social stuff I really suck my social phobia starts to kick in and I get all fouled up. In reality I should be this macho guy who kicks peoples asses and takes names but the sad fact is Iam some loser who never gets out of the house for the fear of what people will think of me and it is starting to really have an effect on my health. I hardly train anymore due to my depression of my life. I would trade all my physical accomplishments in the mat and ring for just one moment with the right girl

 

[enigmata]

Hey everyone

I have stuggled with the same symptoms as most of everyone. I was fairly shy through my younger years but once I got to know someone it wasnt a problem. I say that it all really started in high school. Had a few friends but was intimidated by the more popular students (especially girls). After high school is when it all went downhill. As my anxiety attacks worsend i went out less and less. My mom is a paranoid schitzophrenic and is very overprotective so i felt that geneics must of had someting to do with it (also it was rough growing up with a mom like that). Still i felt i wasnt schizo but i have to admit that i quesioned my sanity. In my heart i knew i wasnt crazy but didnt kno what was wrong.

Eventually i became paranoid of the outside world and went out seldomly (when close worried friends came looking for me). I was to embarrased to tell anyone. Obviously i couldnt work in this condidtion and my dad got on my case. I couldnt tell him the real reason cause i didnt want him to feel his son was a freak/failure. Eventually we became distant and that hurt me really bad. Then i saw the paxil commercials from time to time and realized that it was sa. Still i couldnt do anything about it cause i was too ashamed and afraid. My dad kept on hassling me about working more and more. Also my grandmother who i was very close too seemed angry at me for not calling. I was getting worse and worse and feared i would become agoraphobic for years. So I spilled my guts out to my dad and he didnt beleive me! He thought i was some excuse i made up and that i was lazy. I also told my grandmother and she was very concerned and talked to my dad. I went to thearpy for awile and it helped. It was only one on one though so i was pretty much on my own after the sessions. Eventually i left cause i felt i wasnt getting better after a certain point. I'm still cosumed but the anticipary anxiety and anxiety. I just cant be myself wit all that self conciousness. So i go day by day hoping that someday ill overcome this.

Well theres alot i left out but thats my story hope to get to know some of u in the near future.

 

[Seraph]

Hi all,

It's so comforting to know that other people have social phobia too.
Like many of us, I've been shy from a young age. And, as I grew up as a teenager, I had some really bad experiences with girls who hounded me and victimised. Literally made my life a living hell at school.

I became suicidal and depressed. And I continue to have a dysthmic(?) mood. Now that I'm at uni; I find it really hard to meet new people; as I guess in the back of my mind, I'm afraid that people will hurt me again. I'm scared to look people into the eye, and small group conversations scare me a lot.

I find it really hard to be myself around other people, and find myself drawing further and further away from society. I even get so stricken with anxiety that, in lectures, when there's 200 other people in the room, I'm afraid to look the lecturer in the eye!

But, hopefully through this site, and sharing among others, we'll all be able to get through this together.

xx Seraph xx

 

[Pesik]

Helloo my name is Pesik .... well not really but for the sake of this forum it is 8)
I am 16 and I believe I have some symptoms of SP.
I am very shy around people I do not know and often while giving speaches I have somewhat of a panic attack.
Glad to see everyone here is so helpful and kind.

 

[Broken_dude]

Hey everyone, was gonna say nice to be here, but in the ideal world i sometimes find myself living in, i'd rather these problems never started!

i found this place through much digging around on the net for a decent looking and helpful place.... i haven't been diagnosed with any kind of social disorder but am being treated for depression, which i believe is a result of social anxiety/bullying... there ya go, tis me in a nutshell. Look forward to hearing from people at some point.

 

[The_9th_passenger]

HI everybody!

I come here from the spanish forum so please be patient with me 'cause my english level is high but still is a foreigner language for me.

Ok after that necessary explanation I'll point out some introducing poits about myself.

I'm now 34 years old. I'm a survivor. I have survived to life, to Social Phobia and to suicidal tendencies up to now and I'm not ever going to give up. I'm a real fighter. Maybe not a winner... but a fighter, that's for sure.
I never give up fighting. That's what has made me survive to this f***** SP and this world that we have to live with. It's a cheap, nasty society.

Actually, I should have used the nick "strong&proud" which is what my surname means in old gothic language but -well- seems I was not in my best neuronal degree yesterday at about 2 in the morning :roll:


I want to tell you something: we are just too good, not nerds, not inferior, we have just a problem that makes us be less competitive in today human's world. BUT we are heroes having to cope with it. That means we're strong, corageous. And we will improve someday and get through that difficult life. Then we'll be winners.
So don't you ever give up. Don't you ever doubt that you are great, you are valiant, you are fighters. So just stay where you are, you can count on your family and friends and nothing else matters. And just forget about those idiots who treat you badly. They lose the opportunity to met great persons like us.

Thanks to everybody that spends time reading this post and just stand up and shout to the world! WE WILL DEFEAT THIS ENEMY (the SP)

STRENGTH AND COURAGE!

 

[dana]

Hi

My name's Dana, I'm 16, and I'm really glad that I found a place where people can relate to me. I never thought I had a disorder. I always thought I was just shy. But recently I've noticed that even when talking with a close friend, I cannot look them in the eye. When they talk to me, I have to look away, over their shoulder, at something else. I can't eat in front of people. Lunch is a nighmare at school. When I chew, I critize myself. I go crazy asking myself "am i chewing right?" "are people watching the way I chew?". I can't even get up to throw my trash away. I have to plan out getting up and walking to the trashcan. I watch everyone with their friends I wish I could be like them; carefree. Not worrying about EVERY aspect of EVERYTHING. Even colors of stupid things like pencils, I worry about that. Sometimes I think if I choose the wrong color, everything will go wrong.

My friends have no idea. They tease me about being "weird", but they just brush it off as me being strange. I sweat a lot. I cannot shake hands with people, and I dred high fives. I hate people who remind me of who I want to be. I hate people who I can see the resemblance of who I try to be in. The ones who suceed. My mind constantly rolls, every waking minute. I stress about everything. I make up what I think everyone will think of me. I'm overly self-concious. But the funny thing about that is, nobody knows it. I think it's because I hide it. I think that if I tell my friends that I don't like something about myself, it will become a reality.

If anyone else feels like this, talk to me. Thanks for listening.

 

[Shychick]

Newby here - Hello everyone!

Hey there,

I've just been weaving in and out of these threads and it struck me how so many people suffer from SP. I just had no idea that this was such a widespread thing and that so many of us identify with the syptoms of SP. It's pretty astounding.

I happened upon this site by just surfing the web and trying to find out things about anxiety and then one link led to another and I came across this site - a whole site dedicated to SP! I had no idea such a thing existed until about a year ago. I've suffered SP for as long as I can remember now, so you can imagine the relief I felt in finally discoveing that there was a name for what I suffered and being able to class it into something just allows you to know you're not as crazy as you've always thought.

Its hard to know where to start really. I would say that I've suffered from SP for about 10 years now. Wow, when I put it into years, it's actually really depressing to think that this has (and still does) have such a tight hold on me.

It pretty much affects every part of my life. I went through my entire school years as a very shy girl indeed. Even with my friends, I could barely really look at them that much, and being in a big group made everything even worse. A similar story right through my college days, through university and up until now really. I spent a lot of time on my own, blaming myself for not saying this, and not being confident enough etc etc. Everything would always seem just 'wrong' after any social nights out, or at school, or college.... I would always spend the entire time afterwards analysing what I'd said (or not) and what other people had said, and on and on.... I analyse how my facial expressions are when I talk to people, a lot of the time after I've said something, my lips stay in the same position for ages because I can't seem to move them and I wonder about if I don't move them soon, will people think I'm weird. I constantly feel like people are staring at me. I get so paranoid that everyone is and it just gets to the point where I feel like my mind is going to explode and I just want to end it.

I could go on longer, but I don't want to rant!! I think it would be nice for us all to continue sharing stories, and ideas and just support one another on this website.

I have had a hard time reading some of the postings. Just reading other peoples stories on how hard this is for them is really heartbreaking as I can really identify....

Love to everyone and please feel free to contact me through this thread or emailing me personally.....

 

[Dovir]

Hello my name is Dovir (not really, just my forum name). I am 15 years old and live somewheres in michigan. I stumbled apon this place by searching some information on shyness, I really did not know it was called Social Phobia though.

Anyways, I do not talk to anyone at school (you probably alreadly know what's it like). I usually try and say one word, but find it hard to. I have lived with this thing all my life, also with depression. Some people tease me sometimes meanful, sometimes just kidding around (i think). I really only talk to ones that are really really close to me (like my dad and my best friend). I never really make eye contact, but I try to. I think that a lot of people feel sorry/pitty me, because I do not talk to anyone. I do not have a girl friend because I find it even harder to talk to girls, my dad usually sets up dates for me, but they never work out.

When I do something that seems wrong to me, I usually regret every second of it (it keeps flashing back to me frequently), or if I didn't do or say something. Like I say in my head "I should't have done that..".

I think I will like this place, because everyone has a same or identical problem as me. I really never knew this many people had this problem, I thought is was a really rare thing, guess I was wrong. I also know someone who is shy like me at my school. I hope to get to know you all better. I guess that is all, sorry if I bored you.

 

[Shackie]

I found this site just over a week ago and have been meaning to post, so here goes... I'm a 25 year old guy from New Zealand and I suffer from Social Anxiety/Phobia. I have never had this diagnosed, but from what I've read this is definitely what it is. I should really go back and see my doctor, but the one thing that is stopping me is that I also worry too much about what others might think of me - I hate the thought of my doc thinking I am some fruit loop.

One of my biggest problems is being put in social situations with strangers. If I know that's about to happen, I start to become severely anxious and when the time comes I start to sweat. Plus, I've never really been much of a conversationalist, which probably doesn't help matters either.

It's good to know that I'm not alone!