Overcome social anxiety

I only have one more therapy session left, and I’m already off of Lexapro. Feeling great and no longer a slave to fear. Just need to push myself a little bit more (practice taking the bus around the neighborhood and then for long distances).

I’ve needed to go out these past few days round to the shops but I can’t face it. It’s the same old thing with me. I think about what it is that’s stopping me, if I needed to go out and know that know one else would be about, that is no problem for me at all. I’ve sometimes got up really early and gone to my local park and I’ve been very happy. But the prospect of meeting people, or I should say people meeting me fills me with dread. Why though?

Maybe it’s because of what they might think of me, would validate what I think of myself… Maybe because when I’m out I feel so self conscious and down about myself. At home I’m confident and happy. I’ve got alot of interests and things to do, and not enough time to do it :)

I need to work on being positive about myself, then I know I can face things differently. What’s it matter what anyone else thinks anyway?!

True I am still on medication and seeing my counselor (but probably won’t be keeping it up for much longer) but it is now under control enough that it is no longer holding me back like it was before. I now am able to more consistently able to call people on the phone when I need to without sitting there holding the phone for long periods of time being unable to dial the number. Although the turning point for me was conducting a few services at my church alone when my pastor was away without freezing up or having any major breakdown when fulfilling the role of the clergy.

Recently I’ve been reading Erika Hilliard’s book “Living Fully with Shyness and Social Anxiety” and it is really great. It really gets into detail about understanding your own social anxiety and what you can do about it. A year ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to make this book useful for myself, at least not in the whole “taking action” part of it. But now I feel like I have enough confidence and understanding to actually apply some of the things discussed in the book.

The book has a really great section about goal-setting, which can be applied to anything, not just social anxiety. I really like the book, so I might buy it to have for reference since I got it at the library. I definitely reccommend it. Everything I’ve read so far is great and helpful.

I’ve been on medication for around 2 weeks now and I think it is starting to make a positive difference, even though its not without side effects mainly loss of appetite and increased trouble sleeping.

so many people i know who suffer with SA are so creative, is it that we creative people tend to think about stuff too much?

This completely rules my life. ]:

I’m really happy and I’ve been doing really great with this goal!! I did have some side effects that we think were from the medicine, so now I’m taking a lower dose, but I still feel fine. The only time I’ve really noticed my anxiety lately was Tuesday during my driving lesson. But now that is over and these past two days of driving have been fine.

Track is fantastic! Outdoor track is sooooo much better than indoor. I love the people and I’m being a lot more social. I had a rough March, but this year as a whole has been great. I can’t wait for college!!

I’ve come really far with this the past few years. I still have a hard time with some things (job interviews is a big one) but I have been working with people in my job for the past 4 years and that really helps!

Working as a field tech really helped because I had to call people I’ve never met, talk to them on the phone, and then go to their house/business and fix their computers and probably talk to them some more…this is something I never would have been able to do 5 years ago! Now, working in a school, I interact with people everyday…I still have trouble with general conversation (sometimes I put my words in the wrong order when speaking and/or have a hard time communicating in a timely fashion) but I’m working on that!

This is going really well. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m miles ahead of where I was 6 months ago. I’m really proud of how I’ve been doing. Not to mention I’m extremely happy. I’ve always been I fairly happy person despite being so quiet and anxious sometimes, but lately I just feel free and light! Okay, that sounds really really corny, but I AM very happy right now.