How old were you when you started having Social Phobia?

[206Raider]

To be honest I thought I was fine until I went to middle school, becuase I was friends with everyone in elemenary and one of the most popular kids. Then I went to middle school and there was a ton of new faces and for whatever reason I got shy, although I still managed to be friends with a lot of them when it got to high school it turned out to be too much and my circle of friends grew pretty small....Fast forward 4 years and I have no friends.

 

[Mr.Moon]

It probably started for me when I was in my early teens or possibly earlier. No one really was into the things I was into nor anyone understood me and so everyone deemed me "to weird" or something and so I was bullied a lot. Thus I became very anti social and still am to this day. More and more of my "friends" I thought liked me became distant and started avoiding me and nowadays I only know 1 single person from HS.

 

[CPA23]

I was in middle school so around 12 or 13 years of age for me. I don't like thinking back to that time. I didn't even know what was wrong with me until much later. Those years were pure hell.

I can so much relate to that. The ironic thing is that I always time travel to my past even though pretty much all of my teen years were very painful. I felt like I was living inside of a box. I was so quiet and afraid of being "myself." Hell, I didn't even know who "myself" was. I suffered through all my junior-high and high-school years being extremely anxious and having low self-confidence. I never figured it out then, but I just thought that I was just a quiet person. I never tried to really figure out why I was that way. As I entered my 20s, I finally began to connect the dots and had to face the pain head-on.

It was very, very painful to just go through that. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I didn't know why I was so introverted, distrustful, detached, anti-social and withdrawn. I didn't talk to anybody about how I was feeling. Some people may have thought that I was snobby. This is the complete opposite. I have never had a snobby bone in my body. I actually felt that I wasn't good enough and the anxiety was just too strong. I never developed any close relationships through all my teen years (friendships or romantic relationships). No proms, no dances, no football and basketball games. I just did not want to be seen. I just felt that it was all too much. As a result, I stayed in my corner and became such a recluse. Now at 25, I can realize what was going on then. I have come a long way. I do, however, have much work to do.

 

[BlackPuma]

I'm not sure, it started very early though, when I was 6- maybe 7 years old I reckon.

 

[Quiet Angel]

2 hands in the air !!! Wave 'em like you just don't care.
Yes, I was 10 years old when my phobia appeared.
Nobody understood me in Elementry school & I didn't
understand myself either. I honestly didn't know why I
was so quiet and so petrified of everyone. Now I know.

 

[Freeflex]

This is quite a difficult question. In primary school I was quite a social butterfly.. not by anymeans popular and perfect but I was alright, but I never had problems going up to people and speaking to them or joining games/groups/etc. However, when I started secondary school I was extremely shy.. but I still managed to get by a bit and make friends. I wouldn't really classify that as social anxiety.

However when I started Year 9 (aged 13-14), things got really bad with bullying and all that, and I started shutting myself off from everybody. I'd go to the library at breaktimes and lunchtimes, and I'd stay in on the computer a lot at home. Social isolation makes social anxiety worse.. and here I am nearly 18, now in College trying to get out of this rut. I've made friends at college, but the difficult part for me will be keeping them and getting comfortable with them. It doesn't help that they're the opposite sex either..

 

[spring]

it started getting severe when i entered highschool

 

[vj288]

It was part way through 7th grade. I can almost remember the day...

 

[anxiety1408]

Im not sure but it was from early life, 13-17 sounds about right to me

 

[LadyWench]

I've had panic disorder my entire life. My mom told me that when I was 2-3 years old, I would suffer panic attacks and she wouldn't know what was going on or why I had them. It was around the time that I first started school that it turned into social anxiety, too. Ah, good times.

 

[punklove]

I'm pretty sure I was around seven years old.

 

[Gerdje]

I was aware of it around 17, but looking back now 20 years later, I suffer from it from age 10-12 probably.

 

[SPV]

I think I've had it ever since I was little, but it's gotten worse as I grew up

 

[Johno]

14 for me..... I just went from a popular young chap to a socially awkward chap.... And I remember how my thoughts starting changing at the age of 14... I started to become sensitive to words and other things

 

[Forgotten-Children]

According to what my mom says, she noticed me avoiding the other children when I was 4 years old. That's when I was diagnosed with autism but later on diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome.

I know I didn't get along with many of the kids because I was afraid of being picked on. I had my Woody doll torn up by two bullies which kinda scarred me in a way. Woody was my "security blanket" when growing up so to see him torn like that made me feel.. I dunno.. Like the "runt" of the group.

During my entire school life, I've always been at the bottom of the food chain and I never really had that many friends. The only people who hung out with me where the ones to come to me to talk.

 

[Outer_Senshi]

I started to run away from classes and social situations when I was 20 and I went to the psychologist when I was 21. She said I developed social phobia during childhood.

 

[vichyssoise]

I've always been a shy and quiet child, but I started avoiding meeting people when I was about 13. Then that stopped for a while, although I still didn't know how to carry conversations, etc. Lately I've been avoiding many 'social' things and meetings and my only friends are people I have known for years.

 

[lonely_drummer]

I was 20. I was usually always really shy but then I got into a bad car accident, started having nightmares and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress, then depression settled in and then my SA kicked in. Still have the nightmares almost every night

 

[Predacon]

As far as I remember I've always had it to some degree.