Would they understand?>

[veggielover]

I'm 19 years old and I'm pretty sure I've had SA at least since elementary school. I haven't for sure been diagnosed with it but I've been seeing a therapist and she says that the stuff I tell her links me to social anxiety, but she hasn't told me for sure that I have it. Anyway, I wonder if I need to tell my friends about this. Maybe it would make them understand me better. At the same though, I feel like it would make them step further back away from me because the majority of my friends like to party and be with people all the time so I don't know how they would feel about me being like this. Even though maybe since they've known me for so long they know that I'm uncomfortable in a lot of social situations. I just want my friends to think about me and ask me to hang out..rather than me ask them all the time and then be rejected because they are hanging out with their better friends. It's lame and I don't like it at all. Being a human is really difficult.

 

[NothingElseMatters]

i dont know your friends so i am gonna talk from my experience...when you talk to some people,they will somehow understand your problem.but not completely.they 'll probably think that by saying you 'just do it' or 'dont let it ruin your life' you r gonna magically be ok. And it's not their fault cause they they dont know how it is.
My suggestion is to take one friend ,the one that you feel closer and after you tell how you feel, make him read staff from this site.Give him/her an idea of what is going on.
And yeah being a human is difficult but it's kind of cool too

 

[zofia-life-coach]

I think it's great idea to tell your frinds. In my case it was great exercise in terms of expresing true myself and it turned out very well. x

 

[market.garden]

Being a human is really difficult.

Summed it up pretty well there!

I've not told anyone I know because I really don't think they'd understand.
Couple of them know about my history of depression, but I only ended up telling them because they were going through something similar at the time, so I felt like we had a common ground.

I guess it depends on how you are with your friends. If your close enough and trust each other enough then they may understand more. Just one of those things you have to think long and hard about.

 

[veggielover]

In response to everyone, thats the thing, I don't even know if I trust my own closest friends. Everyone runs their mouth so much I just don't know what to do. It's like I want to tell them, but I don't know if they will truly understand. Actually, one time I told them...I was like you guys I think I have social anxiety and they were like Nooooooo NO you don't! so that just made me feel even more self conscious, like they wouldn't want me to admit my own problem...like they wouldn't want to have a friend with SA..gahh this is so frustratinG!!!

 

[market.garden]

If you don't know whether or not you trust them then maybe its best to keep it quiet, for a bit longer anyway.

You have to take into account whether or not you'll be paranoid about them 'running their mouth' once you tell them. That's partly why no one really knows about my shit, I'd be too worried they'd talk about me behind my back even if they said they understood.

But yeah, it is really frustrating. I don't know whether or not they'd be shallow enough to not want a friend with SA, but people seem naturally afraid of what they don't understand.