WHEN DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAD SOCIAL PHOBIA?

[Depressed4life]

I am going to estimate that i started to get anxious since the age of 9. Of course i didn't know, i thought i was just akward and shy or something. I thought this was a normal stage and that i was just an unlucky little girl. As i grew, this things started to get harder and it was more dificult for me to deal with other ppl and to let go without having this thoughts of my mind that i was being critized. Then one day, researching out of nowhere i just came to the conclusion that i wasn't akward but that i had SAD. I was 16 when i found out, and i am 16 now. I used to go constantly go to the doc and complain about urinating all the time and i thought it was my bladder but my bladder is perfect and i now know that it was my anxiety that caused me to have an over active bladder. I don't know if this is weird but after finding out that i had SAD now i feel lost and that i will never get any help. I feel unlucky for having this and i wish that i was normal free from anxiety and depression. It really sucks, i feel like my life is such shyt and that i don't deserve to live. DOes anyone else feel this way after finding out that you had SAD?

 

[IceLad]

I realised I had SP around 21. I happened to be reading a general self-help book which described my symptons and how I was feeling perfectly.

 

[alex29]

ive always been shy but realized it was more than that in high school when i couldnt even be myself around friends and people i felt semicomfortable with

 

[dottie]

i had anxiety attacks at about 11 y/o. i didn't know what was going on at all, i was totally confused (and scared). after blood tests ruling out everything else the doctor told me it was anxiety attacks, nothing more. they didn't tell me anything about anxiety, what it was, how to treat it, or cope. it wasn't until i was 18 that i found out it was general anxiety and also social anxiety.

 

[livingnsilence]

I started to get SA somewhere b/w 6 & 8 grade but didn't know what I had untill 11th grade when I saw a zoloft comercial about SA

 

[slimjim119]

I was always shy growing up but didn't realize I had social phobia until I was 16 years old. After reading about it and going to a therapist.

 

[Leki]

I have always been the 'shy girl; but i thing i first realised i might have social anxiety when in homegroup in high school there was a poster someone had done on social anxiety. There was a comic on it and it was kind of demonstrating a person's feeling if they had SA. I was like 'oh my god that is so me!' 8O

 

[Scrabbl]

I've been extremely shy since third grade.. I found out it's SP when I was 13 totally by accident in a google search. Tried getting help at 16. Now I'm almost 18. it really does suck.. Now I'm lucky I don't have depression but about once every week I think about suicide because of SP

 

[Depressed4life]

...

I've been extremely shy since third grade.. I found out it's SP when I was 13 totally by accident in a google search. Tried getting help at 16. Now I'm almost 18. it really does suck.. Now I'm lucky I don't have depression but about once every week I think about suicide because of SP

So do i..i just want to stop peeing all the time because of my anxiety. It is so annoying.

 

[recluse]

I've always been a shy person. Since i was a little kid i have felt a sense of alienation from everyone, my dad used to tell people that i was shy and i would grow out of it. I realised that i had a problem at the age of 16, when everyone else seemed to do stuff like go to parties and disco's.

 

[Argamemnon]

I've always been shy, but I think when I was about 23 it became apparent how severe my anxiety was.

 

[alter_ego]

I only found out the name for it a few years ago when the media started talking about "social anxiety" and "social phobia". I guess I've had it all my life, I was always painfully shy and socially anxious right from when I can remember and even for years after leaving school. I missed out a lot in my teenage years when my friends (not that I had many, was too shy! :roll: ) were dating etc, I always found excuses not to go places.

But honestly it CAN and DOES get better. I am still socially anxious and hate parties and clubs but I'm a very chatty, friendly person nowadays and I can do small social gatherings. Confidence comes with growing older and especially once you've been in the same job a while and get to know people. (I had loads of jobs when I was younger, constantly leaving because of the stress of my over-anxiety without realising it was social phobia at the root of it all. )

 

[Depressed4life]

..

Now that i remember when i was younger i was very shy but then it got worse.

 

[Psychedelicious]

I've always had it, I can't remember ever not having it.

 

[Li]

I did not become aware that I was shy until I was in the 9th grade and one of my teachers told the class that I was timid. Me not knowing what timid meant, looked the word up in the dictionary.

I had always had anxiety attacks when I got into social situations. I believe it stemmed from my junior high school days of being the social outcast. When I got around a guy that I liked, I would get light-headed, start to sweat, and all tongue-tied. It has not been that extreme for a long time.

 

[TAMPA-BAY]

When I found out that I had SP

I didnt find out I had Anxiety un til I was at the book store and was walking tru the self help section and saw a book on shyness. It caught my attention so i picked it up and read tru some pages and I was like OMG! Thats what I deal with.

 

[Krellian]

Like everyone here, I've always been exteremely shy, but the term "social phobia" I learned when I first got access to internet - about 4 years ago (when I was 21). I searched for explanation of my condition (I had panic attacks at that time), and found out that panic attacks and social phobia go hand in hand.

 

[noblame4]

I was a pretty normal, outgoing tomboy all the way through elementary school (Even though kids frequently excluded me and picked on me. I'd just fight them and get on with my buisness). Then I started the sixth grade and everything changed over the coarse of the first week. I had this overwhelming feeling that there was something terribly wrong with me, and all the kids and teachers couldnt stand me and would be happy if I would just crawl off and die somewhere.

I dont know what it was that triggered it, because the other kids didnt start their full on assault untill weeks -after- i designated myself as a pariah. *shrug*

Then sometime in highschool, i saw a prozac commercial on t.v. (With that cute little blob. "Are you uncomfortable in scocial situations? Does interaction with others make you feel fearfull? Do you frequently feel left out? You may have a condition called 'Social Anxiety Disorder'. Ask your doctor about..." I thought that sounded a helluva lot like me, and i told my Nana i wanted to look into that. She shot me down though, saying "Oh good grief! You do not need crazy-pills! You're getting to be such a hypochondriac!" so i didnt do anything about it. A few years later, after having my anxiety force me to flunk out of colledge and during a rather heavy bout of depression, I went to a therepist and found out yes, I do have SA and dysthimia to accompany it. Paxil and therepy helped a good deal, I wish I would have gotten help sooner.

 

[Li]

Up until Junior High I wouldn't have considered myself to be shy either. I was a tomboy who would talk to anybody.

 

[kyle]

Probably around 8 or 9.