Hi everyone - this site is excellent!

[Milton5a]

Hi I'm new to this site, but it's amazing. Where do I start ok, I had loads of friends in secondary school then when I was 15 I was bullied and this brought on Anxiety SA and panic attacks. I left school at 16 and worked for my Mum because I felt safe

However now I'm 22, I still work for my Mum - it's great we work in an office with 2 other people. It's a great laugh but it's only the 4 of us.

My day consists of getting up, going to work and coming home. I never meet any new people because I'm afraid they will say nasty things to me and judge me on apperance or that I might not be good enough or funny enough for them.

I am finding it really hard at the moment, I am a caring person and would love to have some nice friends to have a laugh with and god forbid even go 'out' with LOL.

I am on 40mg Prozac daily, this helps me with my panic attacks, general health anxiety, slight CD thoughts but it doesn't really touch SA.

Thanks for reading ... this is a great site

Lauren xx

 

[Brokenx]

i'm from leeds

 

[sickofbeinglonely]

Hi Lauren, I read your post and can totally relate to how you feel. I didn't have any trouble making friends until I was 14 which is when I went through several months of being bullied by a group of nasty kids. The bullying was never quite as bad afterwatds but it still continued until I left school, mostly verbal.

Anyway, I was mentally scarred by it and I ended up having no friends and becoming very isolated. Over the years I've been trying to get help, not doing very well with therapists and have made a few friends through various part time courses I've been on. But most of these "friends" moved on and left me behind. I've tried to keep in touch with some but they didn't want to.

I know how you feel about being afraid that new people will say nasty things and judge you. I feel most likely to be judged by my lack of achievements and experience. And I've had so many bad experiences of being used by people that I find it hard to trust.

I don't think the doctors really understand about Social Anxiety. I was diagnosed with OCD ten years ago and the rituals and now more so the intrusive thoughts have taken a lot out of my life. I try to make friends online but even then I've often been ignored by people which makes me feel worse about myself.

Anyway, that's enough about me! If you want to talk feel free to send a PM. I don't have MSN unfortunately as I share a PC but I have a profile on AnxietyTribe and they have an Instant Messenger on there.