Unusual Fear

[invisible1]

I'm having such an overpowering anxiety about having to post into forums, or yet chat with people online. And this fear is dominating my entire life and I haven't the least idea what I can do to get rid of it. It's really driving me up the walls. And if I don't find a solution to this I could go nuts right about now! This fear is totally fixated in my mind! Help me find a way to get rid of it! please!!! HELP! I just feel flat out hopeless! ::

 

[Satine]

The best thing you can do is to face it. I'm online at the moment too... let's have a chat. Come onto the index page, speak with me a while. I promise you that when we're done you'll feel like you've just won a fight with Lennox Lewis!

 

[invisible1]

Hey Satine, I'm sorry for blowing you off like this. I just kinda wimped out. It was a bit nerve wracking...
Chatting is like a huge leap for me honestly and I don't think I'm up for it yet. I'm gonna have to challenge this slowly, step by step. May be start off posting in forums cos it seems a lot easier and less dreadful. mostly because you don't expect an instant reply, like when chatting. So here I could have the time to muster up the courage to post.
However, the problem is that I get this severe obsessive compulsive sorta feeling after posting something and I eventually end up deleting the post. Sometimes I even feel guilty about them for no apparent reason. Also I'm so freak'n terrified of my posts being misinterpreted, I go over them again and again, it even takes like weeks and I still worry about them. Even if I know there are no problems with my post I always end up deleting them anyway. It's just so painfully frustrating!

 

[Off The Wall]

I use to, well actually still get pretty embarressed posting. It's like did my post make any sense? is everyone gonna thinking i'm stupid? did i say the wrong thing ? type it with lots of mistakes? the list is endless, i've actually gone and deleted post i've made on forums too! and when i do start one or reply to one i usually am forever checking it wanting someone to reply so i can stop feeling so stupid about what i wrote... its pretty crazy.

but then at the end of the day we litterally have no clue who you are. we are all in the same boat and we definately are the last people in the world to judge you! so yeah just start off posting here, then move on to a one on one chat even chatting to someone through emails?? is that hard also? (i'm guessing yes).. just take it step by step as you said. But seriously this is the safest place to be no need to worry we all feel exactly the same...

just go and reply to like 10 posts on here.. see how that goes.. ok maybe 5 or something, just trying posting as much as possible!

 

[invisible1]

Thank you so much off the wall for your encouraging words. It really helped a lot.
I'll try posting as many posts as I possibly can, I just sure hope this fear will wear off sooner than I think.

 

[Conexion]

It is totally normal to be fearful of posting online, especially when sharing such a personal side of yourself that you generally try to keep from others in real life. I highly encourage talking about any issues you're having here. Do you know exactly what you fear might happen by posting here? Maybe we all can talk it through together

 

[Sloth]

I'm exactly the same, I've been posting for years on forums and it has not improved. I will spend hours sometimes writing a message, and most of the time not even end up posting it out of fear.

I was telling my counselor the other day that I will sometimes spend days writing and re writing an email, and put off opening the reply because I'm terrified of what the person might have said or think of me.