Does anyone here suffer from social anxiety?

[SickOctopus]

Hi, long time lurker, occasional poster and first time thread starter!

As can be gathered from the subject title, I suffer from social anxiety and am curious as to who else, if anyone, does.

I have suffered, at varying levels, from SA for most of my life. I've certainly had much more confident periods than others, but in recent years, I have gone from being perhaps slightly eccentric to almost a nervous wreck. I just feel almost constantly on edge, carrying fight-or-flight emotions. I'm always premeditating my dialogue with others, only for it to come out a clumsy mess. And don't get me started on dating! Only the other day, I met someone on Tinder (yes, I know!) and I could barely construct a coherent sentence. I was worse than Guybrush Threepwood!

Obviously, I understand I can gain more from a subject-specific forum (which I also use), but it would still be nice just to know if there are any (or perhaps even get to know) Shenmue fans who can empathise, at least to a degree, what I'm going through. How badly does it affect you? How do you manage it? How does it affect you in relationships, dating, etc?

I'm sorry to bring the forum down a bit with this depressing topic, but I've recently kind of cracked under depression and feel an urge to discuss it.

Hope to get some good insights and perhaps even a bit more!

[MiTT3NZ]

No. You're emotionally hurt by your own thoughts (or whatever) Are you physically hurt by the thoughts of others? No. You'll never even know what they think. If it's that much of a problem, get shit faced when you're out, then whatever ridiculous thing you do will be put down to the fact you're pissed. Then as you get more and more comfortable, drink less and less until you can go out sober.

If you're worried you're just a boring cunt though, you could try pretending to be someone you're not. Peeps do it all the bleedin time, so why not join em? Just remember that paranoia is the ridiculously misguided and highly egotistical notion that you're important enough to people to be a constant subject of their thoughts. You're not that special. You don't stand out in the crowd, so just blend in with the background and make small talk like you're supposed to. So what if you bollocks up your words or stutter? Peeps may think you've got a genuine speech impediment or some shit. We live in a very PC world at the moment. You're more likely to be befriended than have the piss taken outta you.

Now get off the bleedin internet n actually talk to someone.

[nskachu]

I developed a motto for myself: The weirder it gets, the fewer damns I give. Why bother about what people think of you? I does not matter at all. As MiTT3NZ said. you won't get harmed, because someone thinks negatively of you, if they even do so at all.
Ps: You seem alright, so don't worry.