marchhare
05-03-08, 21:33
Just joined the site today and I'm really surprised there are so many members and people still joining. Good to know I'm not alone.
I'm still plucking up courage to do something pro-active about my anxiety, such as visit the doctors, but have in the meantime invested in a self help book on CBT. I've self-diagnosed myself with social anxiety as I blush dreadfully when I have to talk on the telephone or face to face with people. I've had the problem for years, but it is getting worse - it used to be occassional, now its frequent. I know I'm retreating into myself and shutting out more socialising opportunities, spending too much time on my own, but it's a vicious circle I'm not sure how to break. If I could stop the blushing, I'm sure my confidence would improve.
I get incredibly tense and anxious in the simplest of situations - making an appointment, visiting the vets even talking to my sister last week caused a horrible gut wrench and a massive blush.
I love to make mountains out of molehills, go over and over and over conversations and blushing events analysing them and wondering if I made a fool of myself. I worry about lots of things and often look for something if nothing is obvious! I'm also not very good at talking about my problem and only my partner knows about what a major problem it's becoming/become (affecting my social and work life) and is very understanding.
On the plus side, I want to stop this downward spiral and hope to do this by changing my bad and negative thougts to good ones, but boy, it's tough changing the thoughts of a lifetime and a bad incident set me back days and is a total downer. From the outside I often look confident (that's if you don't clock the rosy neck) when inside I'm a quivering wreck.
I'm trying to stop apologising to people so much in an effort to be more positive with myself, so won't say sorry to you for rattling on! And reading back what I've written makes me sound very depressed, which I may be at the moment, but I do have up moments that last hours, weeks or months (but not right now) and actually have a very wicked and dry sense of humour - the one where you laugh when someone trips in the street.
It's good to know other people are out there with similar worries, problems and, hopefully, a sense of humour.
I'm still plucking up courage to do something pro-active about my anxiety, such as visit the doctors, but have in the meantime invested in a self help book on CBT. I've self-diagnosed myself with social anxiety as I blush dreadfully when I have to talk on the telephone or face to face with people. I've had the problem for years, but it is getting worse - it used to be occassional, now its frequent. I know I'm retreating into myself and shutting out more socialising opportunities, spending too much time on my own, but it's a vicious circle I'm not sure how to break. If I could stop the blushing, I'm sure my confidence would improve.
I get incredibly tense and anxious in the simplest of situations - making an appointment, visiting the vets even talking to my sister last week caused a horrible gut wrench and a massive blush.
I love to make mountains out of molehills, go over and over and over conversations and blushing events analysing them and wondering if I made a fool of myself. I worry about lots of things and often look for something if nothing is obvious! I'm also not very good at talking about my problem and only my partner knows about what a major problem it's becoming/become (affecting my social and work life) and is very understanding.
On the plus side, I want to stop this downward spiral and hope to do this by changing my bad and negative thougts to good ones, but boy, it's tough changing the thoughts of a lifetime and a bad incident set me back days and is a total downer. From the outside I often look confident (that's if you don't clock the rosy neck) when inside I'm a quivering wreck.
I'm trying to stop apologising to people so much in an effort to be more positive with myself, so won't say sorry to you for rattling on! And reading back what I've written makes me sound very depressed, which I may be at the moment, but I do have up moments that last hours, weeks or months (but not right now) and actually have a very wicked and dry sense of humour - the one where you laugh when someone trips in the street.
It's good to know other people are out there with similar worries, problems and, hopefully, a sense of humour.