Do you have social anxiety?

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Only avoidant? Avoidant is what you become when your social anxiety takes over your life.

I believe I have it, and it really sucks when you need to find a job, you can't because you need to interact with people.

I feel the same way, before knowing of WP and becoming a member, I didn't want to have anything to do with people, anyone but my family, not in real life, not even online, people on other forums (non AS related) are very rude on the internet, didn't want to bother with them either.

I disliked people completely because of that and bad experiences. Well, I'm kinda the same now, but now I am interacting with people online, even though I don't have any true friends here, I talk to some people here which never did before online.

I have a fair amount of social anxiety. It can go away though.

It's all about how familiar I am and my comfort level.

If I am comfortable and natural and every one knows me... I am very casual and relaxed... make jokes... the way I ideally like to be.

Situations where I don't know anyone or really what's going on, I get very private... I don't talk to people. I don't know what to say... I am paranoid about interrupting anyone for anything. I just look lost.

Actually avoidance is different. People often think of Avoidant Personality Disorder as bad social phobia. I socialise now but I have an avoidant personality, in that I avoid things I don't wasn’t to do. Also I used to be very good at cutting people out of my life. I would say that avoidance is often a part of AS. Social phobia has some avoidance but is more 'safety behaviours'. I had both. Well I have change d from generalised social anxiety to some specific social anxiety such as love shy. Those are thing I want to do. The avoidance, I may want to do some things in the future but really I don’t want to do it.

SA can be for a number of reasons. I’ve know a couple depression led SA. That is when they improved their depression their SA cleared up. But many people with SA get depression because of it. That is not depression led. Their depression makes them feel worse but it will not clear up the SA if reduced. Than there is people like me who have no clinical depression like me. I’m just an anxious person. I don’t actually get down not with emotion blunting I’ve got. I just get incredibly frustrated, especially at not being able to be sad when I should be.

Just to clarify some social anxiety is actually normal and natural. I’m sure everybody is a little nervous sometimes. Unless you are a psychopath, etc.

What people normally mean by SA or social phobia is when a person has an overriding fear in social situations more often than not. Especially getting symptoms like panic attacks and so on, and therefore have trouble interacting because of this.

I consider myself not the most indestructable in social interaction, but also not the most vulnerable either... I think I have the character to get by but not without difficulty...
Although sometimes I think I do really well... and other times I think I can do badly... I'm inconsistent, with abilities. That's how I perceive myself.

I can just barely deal with public places on good days, others I stay home. One of the most horrible things for me is getting fast food, usually Subway. If I'm hungry and I'm forced to order food I prepare what I have to say. But when they are out of the type of bread that I indifferently decided on before walking in the door, my prepared program fails and I stop and stare at the bread choices ... a little too long.

I found the best way to cope with this is traveling. I ride my Motorcycle a lot, and take trips 90-200 miles away on a regular basis. When I'm away from home it's like a new world where it dosn't matter how bad you F' up any situation. You will probably never see them again.

I didn't start to have social anxiety until I perceived a difference in myself early on, which was AS of course. I became fearful of people because I was afraid of their reactions to my "weird" behavior as a child.

I was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder on my second visit to the clinical psychologist, but I'm really not much worse than Pugly. But there are a lot of situation in which I'm not comfortable yet. I even feel nervous walking up to an employee in a big store and asking about where I can find a particular product.

Probably the most difficult thing for me before I was diagnosed was that I didn't really show how nervous I was, so noone noticed or understood how difficult I was finding social interactions.

@BitsandWires: The way I'd deal with that is to have a second choice, which uses a completely separate set of ingredients, picked out ahead of time, too. That way, if any one ingredient is missing from your first choice, no matter what it is, you can just go to that.

Yes, I first found out about social anxiety disorder when I was 16 or 17. Since then I've known I've had it. I think I first started experiencing symptoms of it when I was around 12 or 13, but before then I was always just shy. It was very bad a few years ago, but now it's more mild or moderate.

Overall, I am always nervous about being in public or around other people. I usually have to spend a few minutes to get myself "in gear" before I go out.

For the most part, I can usually go out with relatively few problems. However when I have episodes of depression (which I am prone to) my social anxiety goes through the roof and I go into recluse mode. When I am in this mode, I will usually only go out with a trusted friend or relative, and then only for necessity.

Wow,its almost the same in my case!

It's fascinating to see in this site people that almost have identical experiences as I do.

I'm also very paranoid when I'm alone in crowd,however when I'm with someone then i don't feel social anxiety since my attention is focused on that person.

Not afraid of social interaction, I just stink at it, and unintentionally avoid it for the most part because I'd have no idea where to begin. My inability to remember names, face-blindness, and inability to read whether anyone is enjoying my company don't help.

I think it's wrong to lump AS together with SAD. Here's my theory on the difference: With Social Anxiety Disorder, you automatically panic in social situations, and therefore you blank as to what to do. I realized that this is not me, since I just blank as to what to do in any given situation (I'm still convinced that a manual on interaction at parties, dating, et. al. was handed out on a day I was absent in seventh grade), and then panic as a logical reaction to my cluelessness, and can think of nothing but getting away.

I'm no expert, but I went around a lot of SAD sites before realizing I'm more likely an aspie, and think that sums up the difference. I don't think I have SAD because I'm not inherently shy or worried what people think of me. I avoid human interaction because it's too much unrewarding work.

If I had SAD, I'd likely have dreams where I'm embarassed about being naked in public. In the few public nudity dreams I have had however, being naked gives me the confidence to finally beat up my antagonists. They keep laughing at me like jackasses anyway, but I still feel better about myself. I guess that means that I consider all social conventions (I guess now I could say NT standards) as artificial restraints that I've always wanted to escape in order to be myself and find happiness.

Of course, the path I've taken to achieve that end has left me so introverted that I'll likely die without reproducing or achieving much of anything. Not that unique a situation today, and I have a theory that increased physical isolation is the natural result of media being able to cater to increasingly specific interests (broadcast terms: "Narrowcasting") and connect everyone with said specific interests regardless of geography. Sorry if that's a Captain Obvious statement, and I don't mean anything negative by it, just trying to call where society is going.

Yeah I have social anxiety for sure. Of course it would be a lot worse if I didn't have a job and was couped up in this room all day everyday. Still going out in public and interacting with people gets me quite anxious and withdrawn, I can hardly say anything. However on the rare occasion that I am able to open up to someone apparently I am actually quite likable and a 'crack-up'. I can be such a sarcastic ass though, and I have blurted out some hellacious insults, some people get quite offended and others laugh it off. Depends on the people.

yes, yes and YES!! !

When my Dad passed, I couldn't stop crying - for a whole year and a half... Just could not get on with my life. So I went to see a Psych. and he said I'm agoraphobic. It never made sence, since every day I HAVE to get out of the house or I go mental.

I have very few friends.... I can't say that... I have loads and tonnes of people.... but, I only answer the phone when I'm ready (which is hardly ever). When the door bell rings I hide. I don't like people standing too close to me in line. But I aways screw up a conversation with nerves, or say too much or look like an idiot. I feel much more comfortable talking to some one via e-mail or facebook. I avoid any type of weddings, showers or Birthday parties... I usually come home crying.