Adventure in Shopping!

nicole1

Well-known member
I'd like to think that I've become pretty good at avoiding conversations with people. I can fake it to a point, then after about a couple of minutes, immense awkwardness comes over me and I immediately start to sound like a robot or a "yes" machine.

Today at the store, I got caught up talking to a woman who was great at conversation it seems. I was looking at a HUGE bag of pancake mix but I have given up pancakes b/c I try to eat gluten free for health reasons. She talked on and on about food! I mean, nice lady, very sweet, but come on!

There were several other shoppers who were rather chatty and I was able to shut them down before they started.

It made my twice weekly outting very uncomfortable and I wanted to go home immediately!
 

Quietguy11

Well-known member
This was me for at least a decade. I blocked people out because my anxiety and social awkwardness made it impossible for me to interact, and when I did, I could only continuously reply with one-word answers like, "Yes" and "Ok." Basically it was because I was fighting back some serious blankness in the mind, and fogginess in the brain. I didn't realize though at the time that this had to do with an imbalance of mood-transmitting chemicals in the brain. Chemicals that are ultimately responsible for being out going, social connectivity, feeling recharged from interactions with people instead of feeling completely drained and tired. I use to experience painful head throbbing the longer I was forced into a conversation with someone. Since I got those chemicals balanced though I have not had that problem, nor do I have any problems socializing, or feeling in like I am in sync with society. I bash this point down pretty hard, but I strongly believe based also on personal experience that the proper medication can fix social avoidance and phobia/anxiety, and social detachment/withdrawal. It just takes a bit of time to get adjusted to the medication. I thought I would share this seeing how I've completely recovered from all those symptoms because of the right medication. Of course I'm not pushing medication on you, it's ultimately your decision, but after being healed from my social phobia completely, I pretty much know that antidepressants and antipsychotics work!
 

nicole1

Well-known member
The weird thing, I feel fine how I am. I fought it for so long, but I've always felt comfortable the way I am. I don't feel like I'm going out of my way to avoid. I felt bad when I beat myself up due to my constant avoiding habits.

I believe I can find a happy life the way I am. I cautiously approach social situations I choose to be in. Like going to Sams, a huge warehouse store. I knew there would be people. I walked around, amazed at the newly built store, and even spoke to some people. I treat this type of social situation like a treat. It's not demanding, I feel comfortable at my own pace. And I can laugh about this silly encounter with the nice older lady. She was very nice.

I do pat myself on the back when I can achieve going to the store, but honestly, I feel fine how I am. No one can make me feel bad about that any longer because I accept myself and live the way I want.

I don't like medication. I hope all the best for you with it, though. I've given them a chance but they didn't help me. I'm talking months on them and I was more scared and paranoid than ever. I dropped out of school. I had a panic attack in one class and major avoidance after that. I also felt more depressed on these medicines.

Maybe if there is something that can stop the shaking and panics, I'd give it a try. But I take enough medicine and the thought of taking more makes me feel ill.
 

Quietguy11

Well-known member
The thing with medication is that it doesn't always kick in and bring about the best results immediately or even after a series of months. I literally hard to take medication for over a year before it actually started to heal my brain and give me proper social skills. Throughout that year my paranoia increased, and so did my fears. But I listened to the words of my doctor who told me that the recovery process is a slow and painful procedure. Many people stop taking medication not long after taking it because they do for awhile increase things like paranoia.

Like I said, it took over a year before I saw the results from the medication I was prescribed. I am much happier with my life now that I was then, because interactions with people are a breeze now as opposed to being a trigger for anxiety.
 

Quietguy11

Well-known member
All medication did was take away that mental block or that "wall" I had up that prevented me from having comfortable conversations with other people. Well, that, and it also has given me a stronger mind, more concentration, and a sense of being able to "fit in." to a certain extent.

Again, it took over a year and a half before the medication took effect. At first it was like it did nothing but make me feel worse, but I pushed through it regardless, because I was told every appointment by my doctor that it would take awhile before the medication would start actually having positive effects on me. People normally feel more anxious and even paranoid at first when they take medications, and that causes them to want to get away from them, but the reason why medication induces things like anxiety and paranoia at first is because it's working hard to balance chemicals, and it's not an over night thing for those chemicals to be properly brought into alignment.

Medication is just something that you have to be extremely patient with. Again, waiting over a year for results near drove me crazy. There were several occasions where I just wanted to stop taking them, but I didn't because I didn't want to back track in my progress and I didn't want to experience any withdrawal from not being weened off them properly.
 

Kiwong

Well-known member
I freaked out the other day, the damn newspaper wouldn't scan, and I didn't want to ask the operator to type in the number in. I left it in the basket. As I walked from the shop, she called after me "Sir, Sir" you left your newspaper in the basket." "It wouldn't scan," I said, and left the shop.
 
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