| My own experience - blushing, sweating, panic attacks |
| I'm not sure why I have social anxiety. It's gotten so bad lately. Sometimes I'm fine and I feel good about myself then some days I blush so bad I feel like passing out. I'll talk to someone then in the middle of the conversation I'll just start to blush really bad and I know it too and then it gets worse, I'll sweat, and I'll look away and want to run. I had this happen to me yesterday at the library after running in to an old high school friend. I hate. I don't want to take any medicine because I use to. I mean I was on celexa for 1 year and I gained 30 lbs. I made myself come off it and the blushing started coming back. Every bad situation makes it worse. I'm not sure. There are good days and bad days. When I do go on vacation though, my social phobia goes away, maybe because I don't know anyone but when I come back to town, it starts all over again. I even get this way with my own family. I feel like I'm so alone sometimes and will never be cured. HELP! |
| by Dee on 18th-08-08 12:29 |
| on 18th-08-08 12:54, Phil said: |
| Dear dee. I know exactly what you're going through. I understand that it can be extremely frustrating, because you know there's no reason for your blushing etc, but you do it anyway. Really, while I documented on phobiafree.org that travel was the biggest help for me, I feel that its not so much the travelling, as the time away from your normal routine - away from places where you'll meet your old school friends, and away from what you see as the judging eyes of your family (I too suffered terrible anxiety around my family) and all the other triggers for your reaction. Aside from recommending cognitive behavioural therapy (a method which i never seriously attempted, and I got by without), really the only thing I can suggest is that you relax. I realise that this is sounds like a thoughtless thing to say - you try every day to relax but cant because of your anxiety - but sit down and think about, not so much the source of your fears, but think about what is the worst that can happen if you blush? You look embarrassed, you may be embarrassed, people *may* think less of you, but so what? If someone doesn't agree with what you're doing, then should you really care about what they think? I'm sorry if my reply doesn't really have much of substance to help you with. I think one of the major issues with social phobia is that, since it is irrational, then it cannot really be explained away. Good luck phil www.phobiafree.org |
| on 4th-11-08 08:28, Michael said: |
| Hi! Sorry if my english is bad. I also suffer from irrational fear from people and their critical thoughts about me, and it has been that way for about a year. Now I am going through cognitive behaviour therapy, and we expose every day the things we are scared of doing. Today I took the bus to therapy (30 min trip) and it is torture. I'm so afraid that the people in the bus can see im nervous, and therefore it is very hard for me to go to therapy, but I manage to do it. In cognitive therapy we also learn much about accepting who we are and that it is OK to be nervous in social situations, but still I find it so hard to accept myself and the way I feel in those situations. And now when I have been nervous a few times in the bus I take in the morning, then I am more nervouse next time, because I think that the people have found out that I am "weird" and they need to be scared of me or reject me when at look at them. It's so annoying because I really want to go to therapy everyday but's it gets harder and harder. And now christmas eve is coming and family has to get together, and only the thought of it almost gives me shivers down my spine. Just felt like telling my story about social anxiety. Next time I feel the first signs of anxiety, I will try to say to myself like you did:" to hell with it". Regards from Denmark and keep up the good work! |