When did you realise you were suffering from SA?

U

uksam

Well-known member
Everyone here recognises they suffer from some form of SA, I just wondered when it was you realised what it was and that you had it? Or to put it another way, when did you start to accept that you had a form of SA, that it was part of you and you needed to start dealing with it?

Just thought it would be an interesting topic to talk about.
 
Flanscho

Flanscho

Well-known member
I actually realized it was some sort of SA when I already managed to improve things a lot so it got much better. When it was really bad, I didn't think about it that much. I just made bad experiences, had huge problems socializing and whatnot. I thought that I was just that way and didn't consider ot to besome sort of condition.
 
Nanita

Nanita

Well-known member
I began to realize it when I was 22. That is 10 years ago. Before that, I just thought I was depressed and I had no idea what was going on with me when I felt nervous around people.
I actually remember at that time it was gettting more and more usual to hear or see the expression social phobia/anxiety in conversations, articles, news and so on. I think coming across the expression and then reading about the symptoms, is what made me understand and realize that I could identify with that term.
 
Diend

Diend

Well-known member
So basically I started having social anxiety around sophomore year of high school but I was always a shy person and I I started to deal with it when I realized that it was a lose lose situation for me that if I stayed home no I would be cutting class but if I went to school I will be absolutely feeling horrible and so thus came my desire to treat my social anxiety
 
U

uksam

Well-known member
Nanita said:
I began to realize it when I was 22. That is 10 years ago. Before that, I just thought I was depressed and I had no idea what was going on with me when I felt nervous around people.
I actually remember at that time it was gettting more and more usual to hear or see the expression social phobia/anxiety in conversations, articles, news and so on. I think coming across the expression and then reading about the symptoms, is what made me understand and realize that I could identify with that term.
Click to expand...

Once you felt you could identify with the term, did you find it became "easier" to start finding a treatment?
 
Zackarydoo

Zackarydoo

Well-known member
I've always had the symptoms of SA, pretty badly, but it was only after coming across another SA forum to this that I put 2 and 2 together and actually realised the symptoms I'd had all my life actually had a name. That was only around 2 or 3 years ago I think (time flies so fast that maybe it was more than that!) and I'm in my 40's. *gasp*

It was quite a relief in a way, and even more of a relief to find other people who were exactly the same as me, and no matter how strange my feelings were to everyone around me, there were people in the world who felt exactly the same.
 
A86

A86

Well-known member
when I was 19 a bull was trying kill me and while I circled around a tree for what seemed like an eternity, a train of thought occurred...

why am I not scared?
Do I feel anything at all?
Yes I do feel something, something I couldn't name, something I could only relate to with other mundane events (playing sports in front of a crowd, speaking up/answering question in class).
Wait is this feeling fear?
why do I feel it around people?
am I scared of people?


A Google search of "scared of people" second link had SA. Some more self awareness and understanding & a psychologist later I am here.
 
Nanita

Nanita

Well-known member
uksam said:
Once you felt you could identify with the term, did you find it became "easier" to start finding a treatment?
Click to expand...

Actually it was very difficult for me to admit to other people that I felt I had SA, I was even seeing a therapist that I couldn´t be honest with, we were just talking about everything else that was messed up in my life (difficult childhood, depression, loneliness). It took a while for me to actually start being specific and express myself about the anxiety and everything.
As far as finding treatment, well, I´ve seen so many therapists that couldn´t help me at all, I just didn´t get any better, but now I finally have a therapist that is right for me. I think it is very difficult to find the right kind of therapist. A lot of people are in therapy, but most people complain that it isn´t helping enough.
 
Subpop

Subpop

Well-known member
At about the age of 6 or 7. I was bullied at school because I was ill for most of my 1 st year and I did most of my schooling from home. When I was at school I was bullied because I was sort of an outsider......I was at school for say 3 or 4 weeks then sick and away from school for 3 or 4 weeks. In my late teens I started to experiment with weed and LSD and this exacerbated my anxiety and paranoia, to the point where I became very depressed and cut off my friends. I literally called my girlfriend at the time who I really liked and cared for a lot and told her not to contact me ever again. She tried but gave up. I attempted suicide twice, was hospitalized and diagnosed with BDD and Depressive Illness. From then on my life changed.......I have never really ever felt like I am a whole person....like something is missing. I feel like I am in the wrong place at the wrong time....like my life was supposed to run a different path but I missed the turn off many years ago and now I am making the best of a life that is way off course. Really, that is all I can do, play the cards I was dealt.
 
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U

ukmale

Well-known member
I can remember been young very young around 6 and my mum used to bring me home from school as I used to shit my pants and needed a bath I remember going to bday parties and cry my head off and wouldn't let go of my mums hand I can remember doing the same going to school I used to come from a small village in the countryside then moved into a town with about 36,000 people that's when it all started all those yrs ago
 
R3K

R3K

Well-known member
A86 said:
when I was 19 a bull was trying kill me and while I circled around a tree for what seemed like an eternity, a train of thought occurred...

why am I not scared?
Do I feel anything at all?
Yes I do feel something, something I couldn't name, something I could only relate to with other mundane events (playing sports in front of a crowd, speaking up/answering question in class).
Wait is this feeling fear?
why do I feel it around people?
am I scared of people?


A Google search of "scared of people" second link had SA. Some more self awareness and understanding & a psychologist later I am here.
Click to expand...

wow dude you really faced off with a bull? that's crazy...

I knew something was wrong with me since I was capable of thought.... around 3 years old. i'd get dizzy spells all the time, and the intensity of the spells was always linked to the presence of other humans. I think it was around 2000 that I came across the term SA, and I was extremely elated that there was a name for it... if not much in the way for solutions :sad:
 
L

laure15

Well-known member
When I was 4 years old it was my first time going to school and I didn't want to go but had to. There were several times when I clung to my mother very hard and wouldn't let go. The teachers had to pry me away from her. That's probably my earliest memory of having SA.
 
Slytherin88

Slytherin88

Well-known member
I wasn't diagnosed with SA until probably 22-23 though I had depression and self esteem issues since always, so getting a diagnosis for anxiety and social phobias was a sigh iof relief, that it wasn't something I made up and it was a real thing.
 
J

jc972

1
When I was probably 24-25, I started avoiding random people and social events. Before then, I was the life of the party, usually.
 
¯

¯\(º_o)/¯

Well-known member
About 4-5 years ago somebody online was describing their symptoms of PTSD. And I was like hey, he is describing the same thing I feel. So I looked into it and after a bit of research came across SAD.
 
Opaline

Opaline

1
A86 said:
when I was 19 a bull was trying kill me and while I circled around a tree for what seemed like an eternity, a train of thought occurred...

why am I not scared?
Do I feel anything at all?
Yes I do feel something, something I couldn't name, something I could only relate to with other mundane events (playing sports in front of a crowd, speaking up/answering question in class).
Wait is this feeling fear?
why do I feel it around people?
am I scared of people?


A Google search of "scared of people" second link had SA. Some more self awareness and understanding & a psychologist later I am here.
Click to expand...

A bull was trying to kill you? Really? :eek:
 
Odo

Odo

Banned
I only realized it when I heard that it was a thing as opposed to me just being that way.

But when I think about it, I can remember being pretty anxious as far back as elementary school... I had my ups and downs but I don't think that there has ever been a time in my life when I wasn't uptight about things. I couldn't handle bigger groups even when I was in first grade and usually had just one friend, or would always be on the periphery.
 
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