Stories of Success

[astontsui]

SO, I`ve tried basically everything my therapist and psychiatrist has told me to true, meds, cbt, act, books, meditation, yoga, exercise, diet, de sensitization, blah blah blah, and it works to a certain extent, but I`m still not satisfied at all with the results. It`s been way too many years and I feel like there`s way too much I`ve missed out on, and will continue to miss out on...

Have any of you guys truly experienced freedom in the sense of being able to control your anxiety without medication? How did you do it? De sensitization? Acceptance? Or did you just continue with medication and just live with the fact that you kinda need it?

Right now I`m experimenting with teaching. I feel like I can give a speech at any time now, but I RARELY feel comfortable doing it. The fact is I can, and I don`t really fear it, but I don`t want to, and wouldn`t do it if I didn`t have to sorta thing. Hard to explain.

But anyways, what were your experiences like? Please, somebody give me some hope and inspiration!!! Somebody must`ve recovered from this, I just want to know how!!

[moxosis]

I am in full apathy for my illness and just waiting for the moment to die. I don't feel sorry for my self, i'd be doing the world a favor, I think people are just waiting for me to do it.

[pixies]

I can't take my mind off a trip I took with my family last Christmas. I had to go out with them constantly and do things and talk to people. By the end of the trip, I REALLY felt like I did when I was a kid, before I had real social anxiety. I could go up to a stranger and talk to them about anything. A beautiful girl could look at me and I didn't get paralysed with fear. I really felt back to normal and that my problems had gone. I had a few slight feelings of lacking confidence, but it wasn't enough by itself to really mess me up.

However when I got back home to my usual lame life with nothing to do and nowhere to go, everything reverted back to my usual socially phobic self within a couple of weeks.

To me it tells me that there is a cure, if only for me, but it's going to be really hard because I can't keep going on trips with family or friends. I need to initiate all this here at home and it's quite a big thing to do, especially seeing as with half of it, I will need to do it by myself. I'm not attached to my parents and I wouldn't want to be dragging them out to social events constantly, so I will have to go out to eat and do things by myself. I don't have to go to a restaurant and get a table for one, but I do have to stop buying things online and go shopping instead, and I need to go to concerts by myself and I need to come up with other things to do too.

[LStambaugh85]

It hasnt changed much for me but just recently I decided that it is the 1 area in my life that I can no longer ignore. So everyday I work on myself. If I feel anxious about something I just keep telling myself it will be OK and this is good for me because I need to show myself that I will be ok!!! Its tough but I know I can beat this. I am hoping to get into the nursing program in a year so I have a deadline. If I cant improve by then I see nursing school being even harder than it already is.

[its_a_rick]

Mine is slightly better at the moment, I'm currently doing an internship where they don't expect me to do a lot and I hardly have to communicate with people.
However, I have realized that an actual job would be MUCH more demanding so it may get worse at a later stage.

[shadowmask]

Mine has improved a lot since high school, but it still disrupts my everday life and stops me from having so many opportunities. Al least for now.

[Haydsmom2007]

I think I have gotten increasingly better in the last year/ year and a half.

What helps, is first medication for depression. If I didn't take care of that, I think that would hold me back.

But mostly what is helping me is just training my mind. Trying to change the way I think about things. It's hard to explain. I can put myself into a better mood just by thinking my way to one. Consciously avoid avoiding people. Remind myself each day to walk with my head up and say HI to people I know, instead of sneaking away or pretending I didn't see them. Doing myself up every day helps. Wearing clothes that I feel comfortable in and that look good on me. Fixing my hair, doing my makeup. That honestly helps because I feel so much more confident that way. Wearing heels, too. Trying to realize that other people don't care that much about you. (sounds kinda harsh lol) but everyone is too busy worrying about themselves to notice how nervous you are or the fact that you're shy. When I'm out, consciously STOP thinking about myself. Stop worrying about what other people are thinking about me, how others are judging me. I look around and observe everybody else. Sometimes I see someone and I think to myself "wow her hair is ugly today." and then I come to this epiphany... Me thinking about how ugly their hair is doesn't make ANY DIFFERENCE on how they feel! They have no idea what I'm thinking!!! So then I can put myself in that situation. People most likely are not staring at me and judging everything I do, but if they are, who cares? I can't hear them. Sometimes I imagine myself as someone else. i watch someone else walk through the halls, or say hi to people or whatever, and I see how easy it looks, so then I try to imagine myself doing exactly that. I tell myself that I'm not shy and I'm confident.

sorry rammbling. But yeah it's just my thought processes that helps me to improve. After writing that, you'd think I would be a confient social butterfly, but trust me I'm still really really shy and have tons of anxiety. BUT one day soon, that will be over! hopefully!


something else that helped me is finding out there's actually things that I can do to help myself. About a year ago I was convinced it was just the way I was and I'll never change and I just have to get used to it. Now that I know I have a disorder and there are things I can do fix the problem, I'm making progress. Accepting the fact that I'm shy helps. When people say "you're very quiet." I don't get embarassed or ashamed. I just say "yeah I know. I just don't really feel like talking sometimes." Who's place is it to say that that's a bad thing? Certainly not that person.

[pita]

My anxiety isn't drastically better, but I deal with my life better than I used to.

[Matteh]

I've been rather..hmm, "Alone" most of my life. Never had any friends during highschool (im 18 now) and always had problems socialising for as long as i can remember.

I hated the fact that i was always judged, i met someone early last year who i became friends with and they invited me out to a rave. I was very uhming and Ahing about it..i didnt know how to dance and thought people would judge me for being bad at it.

Anyway, i practically stood in the corner most of the night watching others have fun. I tried so ahrd to make myself dance but i felt so stupid when i did and stopped.

This went on for about 6 months, and over time i started meeting my friend's friends. Around new years i finally started "Getting into" it a bit more...I knew ravers were not a judgemental bunch, and i wasnt really dancing..but kind of swaying/bobbing to the beat haha.

March next year came around, and i decided to try my very first drug...
popped my first ecstasy pill, and within an hour i was socialising with people i'de never met, Dancing hard, Talking fast, and somehow i just knew what to say and when to say it. Any thoughts of what people were thinking about me or judging me flew out the window, i was completely happy and free to do whatever i wanted.

As this affect wore off i started to realise people really aren't as bad as i always made them out to be, it stuck with me from that night on.

I still have trouble talking on the phone, and still find it awkward to talk to people i dont know very well, but Dancing infront of people, and talking to people i kind of know is very easy. And its just generally easy to make friends. I have a few close friends now, and many friends after being alone almost all my life.

Its definatly one of the best decisions i ever chose to do

[Haydsmom2007]

As bad as it sounds, but alchy and weed did help me =\ In response to the person above me.

I rarely get drunk, 2 times in the last 6 months, I've smoked weed like 3 times in my life. But just the feeling I had while I was drunk/high, how I could talk to people and not care what they thought about me, just makes me realize now when I'm sober, that people aren't so scary after all. If I can talk to people with no worries while I'm drunk, why can't I do it sober? I LOVE socializing. I wish I wasn't so scared to do it. I went to a party and got totally smashed and I loved how I just went around and talked to EVERYBODY. About anything and everything and how they all actually liked me. Yeah.. it's so funny how little things like that make me so happy when those are things that just come natural for other people