Can you still be an outgoing person and have SA?

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nunvangus

Member
Ok well i know i have SA... but reading through peoples posts it seems that most people with SA are fairly shy and reserved?? Although i have my off days, on the whole i would say i am a very outgoing person, its what goes on in my head that i have to deal with!!! No one understands me as people would never think i had problems socially maybe i have just taught myself to act through it??

Is anyone else like me?? xx
 
tarns83

tarns83

Member
nunvangus said:
Ok well i know i have SA... but reading through peoples posts it seems that most people with SA are fairly shy and reserved?? Although i have my off days, on the whole i would say i am a very outgoing person, its what goes on in my head that i have to deal with!!! No one understands me as people would never think i had problems socially maybe i have just taught myself to act through it??

Is anyone else like me?? xx
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Yeah I see SA as a spectrum of mild to severe.. And you seem to be at the mild end which is a good thing, like sundaygirl says :)
 
Lorraine Manca

Lorraine Manca

Well-known member
yes, you can. i think some people are so outgoing and full of life that it backfires. like if you be yourself around people, it will be too much for them. i know a man who sings full force in public as if he were home alone in the shower just randomly in the day. hes over 6ft tall, loud, and scary. i couldnt believe it, but he confessed to me he used to be very shy, but just got tired of it. he's one of those people thats just too much. its not cute or cool when he acts up, its really weird. people dont think his humor is funny and try to ignore the singing, but he really doesnt care.

but then, like the other people said, maybe your sa is more mild. we're all jealous of you if thats true!
 
Waybuloo

Waybuloo

Well-known member
You can be both outgoing, ie extroverted and have social anxiety.

Psychiatrists define 5 components of personality as including extroversion and neuroticism,; extroversion being self explanatory, and neuroticism being emotional stability, a tendency for developing anxiety and depression. So, because extroversion and neuroticism are mutually exclusive, you can be both extroverted and anxious at the same time.

Of course you can be really outgoing and love to be with people even though it causes you to have negative thoughts and feelings inside. But I can't imagine how hard it must be for an extrovert to be so crippled with anxiety that it renders them house bound.
 
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nunvangus

Member
Serafina said:
Yes, I believe that it's possible to be outgoing and have SA. SA may sometimes cause me to be more introverted, but I can be either introverted or extroverted by nature. This may depend on my mood, my environment or the people around me. When I am tired, I am much more quiet and calm and keep to myself.

I can be very chatty and open with total strangers as long as I get good vibes from them. There have been people who I met and clicked with right away, and then there are those whom I feel uneasy around so I don't interact with them more than I have to. I can be very social within a group as long as I know the people and am at ease around them. I often wonder whether that has anything to do with my SA because if there are gregarious social phobics then there could be non-social phobics who are simply unsociable. I want to be able to separate the behavior caused by my SA from my innate behavior.
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Thanks for the replies....

This is exactly what i am like... It all depends who i am around and i find it very weird how some people make my SA alot worse. But I wouldn’t say my SA is mild, it really does effect nearly every social aspect of my life. I sometimes look at people in social situations and wonder how they feel? I find it amazing how something so normal can feel so hard for us::(:
 
Ignace

Ignace

Well-known member
With severe SA, no way you would like going out .. SA excists in a 1000 forms, which is said a billion times before. :)
 
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socialphobic38

Member
I think there are many different types of SA. For example some people have it with all people and others just have around certain types of people. I don't think social anxiety is determined necessairly by how many friends you have/people you talk to but by how you are around them. For example my girlfriend talks to people less then I do but says she is not socially anxious around people, she doesnt doesnt really find much interest in talking to them. It probably works the other way too where people who are anxious talking to people have many friends like some kid I was in group therapy with once. It's great actually if you can be anxious around people but be tough enough to battle through it and make friendships. It's 100 times harder for people with this issue then the average person and many people don't seem to understand that but if you are able to do it then that is great.
 
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MaxineRyder

Active member
You bet !!! I am so terrified of awkward silences that instead of being a shy personality, i am a loud, chatterbox. By the end of a meal out with a friend i am exhausted from having run my mouth non stop for 3 or 4 hours.

I don't know if this is similar to what you go through, so sorry if i have not been helpful.

Maxine
 
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