Social Anxiety

[5minsforfighting]

Ok bros sorry for these posts but i sure do get good advice from people on here, and I do apperciate it. Ok heres the story basically I get this weird feeling everytime i am in certain situations. Its like i get a sick to my stomach feeling or like i wanna crap. I get this feeling in various situations, some of them include, Going to the bar, Eating in a packed resturant, getting up to speak publicy. Like for instance ill go to a packed bar and feel like i wanna puke and i havent even drank yet. Its strange cause sometimes i do puke and then im ok. I dunno i read a few things on social anxiety but im just curious if anyone out there experiences these same things, or if anyone knows someone like that and if so what kind of treatments have they gone about getting. One thing im worried about is if meds are an option do you feel any sideeffects that might enhance your athletic performance. Thanks in advance.

[painintheazz]

Sorry bro I don't have this problem but I know there are meds for it, my boy took them for awhile in high school. He was drosy a lot that is the only side I remember.

Pain

[Red Ketchup]

5 mins ... I know the feeling... trust me...

I usually "pass it off" as being anti-social and a loner, people can accept that and leave me alone.

Fact is that I avoid crowds like the black plague, and even one on one situations with strangers makes me sick to my stomach. If there is more than 2-3 people at the laundry place, I won't go in 'cause I got to spend an hour there. Xmas shopping in packed malls is a nightmare for me.

Hell, even at the gym I do everything possible to isolate myself (walkman on head all the time, look at floor or ceiling, un-inviting body language) and if there is too much people in the gym I will sometimes come back later.

Public speaking or even performance doesn't bother me (like doing karaoke in a packed pub), but I really have to psych myself up big time to go speak to strangers (which can be a problem in my current job as I am an environmental inspector for the gov, talking to people is a big part of the job).

Of course at times over-compensating for this does make me come across as aggressive and unpleasant but well...

I just learned to live with it...

Red

[EXCESS]

Ricky Williams has social anxiety. He takes meds and he's getting better.

["D"]

I have social anxiety and it rules your life, I had the same feeling in crowded places and still cant figure how to control the shit. I become a prisoner in my own body?

[tolinka]

As i was growin up in my yonger teen years i didnt really have any social anxiety i didnt care about anyones opinion, well in a way i did you know peer pressure but i could hang around people and meet new frinds with no problem. but as i got older and experienced some traumas in my life with a drug abuse i tuned myself into something else. i became depressed and have social anxiety. ive been taking meds for a year, didnt help me really for shit just made me calmer but didnt do anything i rather smoke wed then take the meds it makes it better. but now without the meds i'm trying to overcome this social anxiety. its really a pain when you get pressured by your own thoughts and nothing else, and this thoughts control the way you behave. i think i'm slowly making a progrees to ignore this things. i still have it but i'm working on it. jopefully it will go away.

["D"]

I used xtc for about 2 years and think that messed up my chemicals to induce social anxiety. I definetly know it caused alot of problems and was a waste of time.

[5minsforfighting]

Really apperciate the responses here guys ... Went out last night and had the same feeling again but i controled it a bit better ... Most of the time its basically in resturants and ill just end up leaving early and taking the food home with me... i dunno its really strange ... i do think im going to go see a doc soon ... thanks again everyone that helped me out ... this board is the best

[Lostsoul]

5mins, yeah i sorta have that problem too, i have a stutter and i get anxiety in certain situations, but its because of my stutter, its really weird, i dont have any problem going to a bar or out with friends, but if i have to go out to a bar and speak to other people i dont know, then i can have some problems. Dont even get me started with using the telephone, i HATE the phone, talking to friends is ok, but talking to strangers is hard...

But i have improved over the years, and have learned to "fix" the problem by myself through self awareness, but i'm upto the point in my life where i gotta learn to speak to people better or i'm going to have problems, its a real bitch when you gotta really worry about not being able to say your first name properly, it totally sucks.

But for me and i think for you guys aswell it might be a confidence issue? maybe if you visualise yourselves speaking to strangers and being in packed bars and not having any problems it may give you confidence to be able to handle it.

i've always been a big believer in looking problems straight on and say to myself "fuck this i can do this, i aint gunna let anything stop me"

I havent taken any meds or had any treatment, but i have a referral to goto a neurologist, so i guess i better get the problem fixed.

Hope this helps.

[skinnyhb]

it's wierd, usually, my mind can overcome it and not worry about it. buy my body is still on strike from crowds and situations like you were describing. i get all sweaty, especially my palms, and it really isn't cool. i cant even hold my girlfriends hand because of it. not fun.

[abstrack]

I second the emtion on the xtc fucking up the chemicals in your body. I have had the sameproblem now for years, cant go to malls or if i do I run through there so quick to avoid all things. or I go when there is basically nobody there. Even when I go to class it becomes a pain in the azz. Hands are constantly sweating, big crowds scare the shit out of me. I use to drink heavily so I could deal with all situations or take a shit load of xanax per day( like 16 mgs) and be a total zombie. Finally I said fuck it and just said the hell with shit and learned to deal with it one day at a time, dont get me wrong I still suffer very much from the social atmospheres but today I am sober and learing different way to cope. The ne thing that pisses me off the most is my hands and palms sweating like a mofo, cant shake anybodys hand or hold a girls hand or if you do you have to constantly whip them on your pants but after ahwhile your pants become wet. so this year i am getting a procedure dont call hyperhydrosis which cures the sweating of the hands. i am kind of hesittant to going back to the dock about the social anxiety cause I do not feel like being on meds.

[palme]

Stay away from pills if you can. As soon a you stop taking them it will all come back. Get it threated with the help of a shrink.

[abstrack]

I am with palme on this one!! If you can afford it go to a shrink and learn how to deal with it and change the situations around. Pills are basically only a placebo and you will end up relying on them for everyday life. What happens when you don't have your magic pills??