Okay I am reluctant to ask this question but here goes…

reply to post by davespanners


I think it's a social anxiety disorder and not a social phobia.

Yeah, mine is pretty bad, actually really bad. It's like I am not happy about being like this but whenever I truly think about just going out and meeting people it turns into an absolute turn-off and I just return to doing nothing again.

It's repetitive, I do not even know what caused it, but I would love for it to be cured. I have no problem with medication either, I'm not that type of ATS'er.

I just don't want to go to a therapist, they told me I should have never been homeschooled but it made me a lot happier never having to go to school and just stay home and do my own thing all day. They told me it would not help but would make it worse, I know I have pretty much eradicated the Generalized Anxiety from my life. I wasn't even afraid to get on an airplane or go to my family’s up in Pennsylvania which surprised me a lot because I haven't seen them in years.

So I mean my Generalized Anxiety is mostly cured by my Social Anxiety probably got worse.

reply to post by Misoir


I ended up being home schooled for a while but that was because I was unable to even walk through the school gates without having a huge panic attack.

For a while when I was at university the anxiety left me completely and I transformed into someone that everyone knew and spoke to, the real "life and soul" of all the parties. As soon as I left uni and started job hunting it came back worse then ever before.
I don't get the anxiety in social situations at all at the moment, not since I started getting treatment anyway.

I have a booklet somewhere about Social Anxiety Disorder that a Doctor gave me that I will try to find as I remember it had some interesting advice.

I know that my list of problems include Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social phobia, and now apparently fear of intimacy. Great…

Well my assumption is that the only way to eradicate this fear is through therapy… I hate therapy so much…

Thank you though Gazrok, I will have to do further reading on this issue.

You're quite welcome, and glad if I was able to help, even a little bit.

Therapy is just a tool though. It, in and of itself, is not a cure-all...and it's just one of many tools. As mentioned, medication is another option (but of course, requires some therapy first to be prescribed), and it just may be a combination of these, or even just working it out on your own.

There's no LAW that says you can't perform your own therapy. This is how many get over phobias (i.e. they just DO it, and then get it behind them). Since this is a type of phobia, there isn't a hard and fast reason you couldn't do this yourself, without therapy. (and therapy is only as good as the therapist)....

The thing to remember is...even if you open yourself up and get burned, all it can really do is make you a stronger person for the next relationship. Don't see the potential pitfalls as absolute, or even as being devastating. In the final analysis, that which doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger.

I had similar issues when younger. My therapy was getting a job where I had to interact with the public on a daily and continual basis. Your solution could be simple like this one, or complex like therapy, but it's up to you to decide, and take the next steps, whatever they may be. Good luck in the endeavor.