how many people here have a Social Phobia

Post Reply New Topic

I don't. I just rub many the wrong way. I also talk fast which I believe overwhelms some people. My wife (who is in complete denial about my recent diagnosis) thinks I do that on purpose just to show off my intelligence, but it is simply the way I talk.

EDIT: If you would have asked me this question 6 years ago I may have told you yes. It is sort of something I just got over.

I have it. It's getting better as I accept neurotypicals as the illogical beings that they are.

Yes.

It helps having a label for the way my brain works and realizing that it is significantly different than the way "theirs" is working. But I still dread gatherings and parties and suchlike unless I have a job to do during them. If I'm working (as a musician) that's no problem, because we play the music and if there's conversation among the musicians it's predictible and usually music-related.

I also am becoming increasingly aware that I just don't see the point to most social gatherings held by NTs. Small talk and gossip, or I'm supposed to be interested in them blathering on about people I've never met who are usually mired in dramas of their own making.

I also teach online and dread upcoming lessons (one-on-one by video) though I have rarely had an actual lesson that went badly. That's kind of weird because there's no free conversation in a lesson, really, and I don't dread teaching face-to-face. I'm not sure why that is.

People say I have social anxiety/phobia, but I like to say there is a cause. I have big problems talking, usually along the lines of not being able to find the words to say. I do this in small groups, and large groups. I don't like dealing with the frustrations of trying to speak, so I avoid social situations. Not to mention the memories of the ridicule I used to get when I couldn't find the words to respond. I hate, hate, hate being called an idiot.

I have no problems doing things like going to the store because the only person I have to talk to is the person at the cash register. That conversation is so rehearsed I don't have any problems with it. If I am having problems trying to figure out if a product is what I want or need, instead of asking somebody, I go home, look it up, research it, and then go back to the store.

Questions, btw, are the hardest thing for me to find the words for.

I see my social anxiety as a less irrational fear of people than social phobia with less "physical" symptoms, similar to the typical shyness. It's like an spectrum (shyness > social anxiety > social phobia > agoraphobia).

Well said...

I have social phobia/anxiety, always have.