Introducing social anxiety

I am a possesor of the social anxiety gene. I am a 22 year college student from a good family, good neighborhood, and goodlookn. My life has been a journey of tramatic events and I feel that somewhere in between coping with the burden of self pity and blame I developed an everprogressing form of social anxiety. I was abused as a child sexually, resorted to drugs in my teens, and took a trip to prison at the age of 20 for 1 1/2 years. Now my life is for once stable, I take care of myself the best I possibly can, but I'm coming to realize I have a serious case of social anxiety, I need help, meds are worth shit, my shrink isn't working, I'm leavn this in my own hands. If the problem doesn't go away, something will happen, I dont know what it will be, but I refuse to waste my life unable to speak to strangers and always seeing myself from the criticizing eyes of others. I need some help from people who already tried everything but found a way out somehow. Please help.

sorry u have had such a bad time. I personally only have mild social anxiety, mostly because Im afraid of having a panic attack in public. What meds have you tried? The only advice I can offer is that you make sure that you eat a good meal (with protien) before going to a public function, because low blood sugar can make nerves worse. Keep conversations short and sweet, and try looking at others closer than you do yourself, it helps to realize you arent so different from others, and also helps you take the focus off yourself, and sometimes even makes you laugh when you realize that a lot of people look and act funny, its just part of being human. Also I suspect that you need counceling with someone quailified to help you in that area. Not to dwell on the past, cuz that is past. But to help you create a new today and see yourself as the person you are now and not a product of your past. Good Luck, I hope I helped a little.

Jen

Thanks Jen, being as though today was a "mild" day it felt real good to read your response. I do try about a million ways to alter my mood before I expose myself to social situations, and I found when I eat anything before being in public it actually aggravates the symptoms, my blood pressure always rises after I eat, regardless of whether the food is high in sodium. On the other hand I found the exact opposite works best for me which is an exhausting workout right before I go to work or class and I always delay my lunch as late as possible. If gives me a sedating affect as when you exercise and don't eat your heart rate and blood pressure take a plunge. My main source of exhausting my anxiety is by extreme physical exertion, however its only a temporary fix. I do appreciate eveything else you wrote though, they are all things I consider everyday and as right as you may be it just feels like theres so much opposing force. Good luck with your panic attacks, it is a horrific experience to loose control of your thoughts and spiral into a frenzy of panic and distress, and all I can say is that the brain is a very mysterious and powerful thing, and I hope all those suffering from mental ailments can be relieved of thier pain and misery. :roll: