Although I wasn’t really bullied there were a few incidents I can remember. There was this one kid who used to try and sit behind me on the school bus when I was in secondary school and did whatever he could to annoy me. This would include digging his knee repeatedly into the back of my seat. He would do this for the whole journey which was about 20 minutes and thinking about it it must have taken a lot of effort on his part. I didn’t do anything for a long time because I am socially anxious until one day I just turned around and shouted, “What is your problem?!” I think, like you said, I had become so passive and withdrawn from life that this outburst didn’t cause me any anxiety.

I also hated the hairdressers and so had long greasy hair and I used to skip lessons especially P.E. and English. I remember if I had to stand up and read something one kid would mutter under his breath, “don’t go red, Dave. Don’t go red.” Obviously I would immediately go red.

I’ve only just registered on this website and I’ve been reading your blog from the beginning and have reached this point. I really can’t emphasise how great it is reading what you have to say and knowing I’m not the only one because I certainly felt I was the only one in my school. It is also very interesting learning about the psychology behind social anxiety. I left school 10 years ago and haven’t done anything to get over my anxiety but you have really spurred me on to do something so I just want to say thanks.