First off. Stand up comedians. Watch Mitch Hedberg. You never laughed until you've heard him, and hey it's not a matter of convincing yourself that you won't get it, because you will. It takes time. You admitted your problem, and your taking steps to get past it, and thats good

. If you can laugh that means things arent to bad to control. Just take control! You want to talk to people? Do it! Make some friends, if you have to embarass yourself and try and suffer through immesurable fear time and time again, at the finish line you'll be happy. If you fail, try try again. So keep trying! Look back at the failures and make a sucess. You can do it! And stop hurting yourself! Unless you don't anymore. It helps at the time but you'll regret it later.