My Story Chapter Six
In this sixth chapter of my life and social anxiety I talk about my 21st birthday, trying to get away from my problems, my SA getting worse, supermarkets, walking, panic attacks and irrational thoughts. This is the last in this series of videos as from this point onwards I started working at overcoming my social anxiety.
If you missed out on previous chapters you can view them here…
Chapter 1: Primary School
Chapter 2: Secondary School
Chapter 3: College
Chapter 4: Work
Chapter 5: Personal Life
Tags: 21st, Being Quiet, Birthdays, Celebrating, Depression, Fainting, Irrational Thoughts, Isolation, Job Hunting, Panic Attacks, Phones, Speaking, Supermarkets, Vision Fading, Walking
May 6th, 2010 at 6:18 am
Nick,
Thanks again for sharing your stories!
I would be interested to hear how did you realise you were getting better and started overcoming social anxiety. I believe that many of us have good days and we thing we’re getting better and then the day comes when we feel completely down again and feel anxious about everything again.
Thanks and kind regards!
May 16th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Hi Nick,
Thanks for making these videos. I think in my case my social anxiety has never been as bad as you once had it, but it has been a major and consistent problem in my life, even now. Like Tejka, I’d like to hear more about the steps you took to overcome your issues – I’ve known about social phobia for about two and a half years now, but I feel like the progress I’ve made has been slow and minor. Thankfully, a week on Wednesday I begin CBT – something I’ve been waiting for since July last year.
May 19th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Hi Lee, Thanks for your comment. Hopefully I can allocate some time to making the videos soon. All the best with the CBT Hope it helps you make the progress you want.
July 8th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Hi Nick
I can’t believe how similar your story is to mine. Even down to moving in with my sister and her boyfriend and being terrified of being left in a room alone with him and having to make conversation.
My experience of supermarkets is also similar. I hate having to pack the shopping into bags as the checkout person is scanning because I feel everyone in the queue is judging how I put the shopping into the bags. I can almost hear their comments in my head like, “he doesn’t know what he’s doing” and “why is he shaking so much, is he ill?” I’ve started going to the self-checkout so I don’t have to speak to the checkout people but that comes with its own problems. Almost every time something will go wrong with the machine and I’ll have to wait for assistance, holding everyone up behind me. Thinking about it now is making me cringe.
The last part of your video brought a tear to my eye. I can really identify with the relief and realisation that you had a problem that other people had and that you could do something about it.
September 6th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
The supermarket used to be pretty bad for me, and was probably the situation I felt most anxious in, but then again I wasn’t doing many things back then. It makes me sad to think that there are millions of people out there who are still going through social anxiety who do not understand that they are not alone with it, or even don’t understand at all what they’re going through. It is hard to know how to connect with then all, but I think the Internet is probably the right way as it is probably one of the few places they visit. Many people just stay and their houses a lot.
March 8th, 2011 at 2:41 am
Nick,
Thanks so much for these videos. I find great relief in how similar our experiences have been with social anxiety. Regarding my birthday, my story is pretty similar to yours. I typically didn’t bother to do anything special for my birthdays, but I,too, wanted to do something a bit more special for my 21st because it was supposed to be more of a big deal. It was difficult to plan because I had trouble bringing attention to myself, even with my friends I had grown up with. I invited them out to a local restaurant to have dinner and drinks. One of my friends had had her birthday a few days beforehand. She and some of my other friends had been celebrating her birthday for days, going out to bars every night with numerous people. When it came time for my birthday, they attended, but were really wiped out from her birthday events. I felt really unimportant. It seemed unfair that my friends would celebrate another friend’s birthday for days, but couldn’t muster up the energy to really celebrate mine with me. I kept telling myself things like, “I must not be enough fun,” “I must not be as important to them,” “They’re only here because they feel like they have to be” etc. I tried to logic it out, and recognize that because I had such a hard time talking to people, I wasn’t really keeping our friendships strong. And also, I could recognize that they had kindly attended my birthday party and had been incredibly nice to me, but it was so hard to fight the negative thoughts in my head. Nick, thank you for sharing your story with all of us. It means the world to have someone speaking your thoughts and making you feel a little less alone.
June 17th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Interesting, we both had almost the same exact experiences! I used to have to wait until late at night to go to the supermarket for food, in fear of someone seeing me and judging me. I’ve come a long way since then. Your tips are very helpful. Thanks for sharing!
August 6th, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Hi Nick,
Inspirational story, thank you for getting the courage to share your thoughts and your experiences with everyone. It is great that you are doing this to help others overcome their social anxiety, hopefully one day we all will feel relieved. When I was younger I use to fear walking past people on the street and I’d cross the road but I slowly over came this, I first started trying to smile at people (simple but it made me feel better) then eventually I got round to saying ‘good morning’ or ‘evening’ to the odd person, it gave me such a boost of confidence. It was like succeeding every time I did this!
Diane
January 23rd, 2012 at 8:18 am
Hi Nick,
A lot of what you talked about I too have been through, I became aware of my condition when I was quite young. I always new I was different, I have been on anti- depressants for about 8 years and still struggle. I’m seeing a therapist at the moment but fear I will be like this until I drop of the perch. Now 38 years old and finding it very difficult to see any light at the end of the tunnel. But thank you for speaking out it must have taken an enormous amount of courage to lay yourself open like that.