yeh this is my first attempt at the final year however i enrolled two years ago for the final year and stopped attending at the start because of social phobia and i felt lost in the world, i actually ended up driving my car past the college and drove around avoiding classes until it got to the stage where i felt too embarrassed to turn up at all, this lasted for months, it looks silly to the average person but at the time i literally had zero confidence in myself to do anything except what was within my comfort zone, everything else felt impossible. the average person wont understand that sort of behaviour but many people do understand it as well.
The people who seem to progress in university and a career tend to have this blissful ignorance to the fear of failure, its like they dont have a consciounce and they arn't afraid to adjust or take risks at all, that's the real key to approaching university. if you fail a test or a project there will always be opportunities to re-submit or gain a pass if you simply communicate with your mentors or teachers.
if you have symptoms of social anxiety on any level it can become more intense if you let the pressure of passing take over rather then just trying to learn the content and focussing on the content itself. i know i would sit down trying to tackle a problem and all i could focus on were the other students and the fact that i might fail if i attempt a problem so by the end of class i'd read and studied and didn't take in alot. however some days i flew through and worked harder then ever that it impressed other class members.
sometimes mood can dictate how you behave. its easy to walk into the halls of a university/school with a sense of dread and self hatred. you really need to find a positive reason to take everything in your stride. its like when you see a smooth talker trip over, you dont find it funny and nobody really cares all that much but if that was you, or just say you start talking for the sake of it, we believe everyone is judging us harshly and its not true.
i just wish i had the knowledge i have now that i had when i was 18 years old, so i could start my adult life at an earlier age rather then struggling just to obtain a diploma, i mean its humiliating to me now, but thats how it panned out and i have to learn from it. its not as bad as people who i noticed enrolled in the course and they had no interest in the subject, whats the point in that?
anything is possible with a little effort and energy, if you put in you'll be rewarded eventually and social phobia is not something i wish upon anyone because it has the potential to stop you in your tracks by avoiding everything and that is why its such a big deal and needs combatting as soon as you can even if its painful.
the age group of people in my class is quite varied, we have people in their teens, 20s, 30s. 40s. 50s and so forth, they are all there for different reasons, chamge of career, starting a career, age doesn't have to be an issue when it comes to study.
