Joined
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124 Posts
Hi everyone!
New here, I'm glad I found a place to vent and feel normal. I guess I've been dealing with SAD since when I was about 14. First I thought it was depression, so I went to doctors and tried various anti-depressants over the years (Paxil, Lexapro and most recently Cymbalta), all of which seemed to do nothing for me other than put me in a fog, cause sexual dysfunction(yay), and give me 'brain zaps.' It wasn't until a few years ago that I actually read about social anxiety on the internet and was shocked to discover all the indications of it fit what I was dealing with.
I'm 27 now and hate to think of all the experiences SAD has taken from me. All the things most people do with ease is such a friggin issue for me. I downloaded some audio course called 'Overcoming Social Anxiety' by Dr. Richard Thomas? Anyone use this? No more pills for me. The only thing that's really helped is Adderall and I used to get that from my college roommate who didn't like taking his prescription. To me it's like speed. I lost like 25 lbs. and would stay up for days. But when I left school I no longer had access to it - probably a good thing but it sure did make me feel awesome and sociable!
My biggest issues are: doing introductions when you're starting a new class, presentations, not a big fan of loud bars but I do force myself to go out, initiating and maintaining 'small talk' and basically just being the center of attention. As soon as the teacher says, 'let's go around the room' my heart races and I can't breathe. Awful. I try to breath really slow, think of coping thoughts and nothing seems to work. I have a lot more to say but I don't want to ramble too long. Anyway, thanks for reading.
New here, I'm glad I found a place to vent and feel normal. I guess I've been dealing with SAD since when I was about 14. First I thought it was depression, so I went to doctors and tried various anti-depressants over the years (Paxil, Lexapro and most recently Cymbalta), all of which seemed to do nothing for me other than put me in a fog, cause sexual dysfunction(yay), and give me 'brain zaps.' It wasn't until a few years ago that I actually read about social anxiety on the internet and was shocked to discover all the indications of it fit what I was dealing with.
I'm 27 now and hate to think of all the experiences SAD has taken from me. All the things most people do with ease is such a friggin issue for me. I downloaded some audio course called 'Overcoming Social Anxiety' by Dr. Richard Thomas? Anyone use this? No more pills for me. The only thing that's really helped is Adderall and I used to get that from my college roommate who didn't like taking his prescription. To me it's like speed. I lost like 25 lbs. and would stay up for days. But when I left school I no longer had access to it - probably a good thing but it sure did make me feel awesome and sociable!
My biggest issues are: doing introductions when you're starting a new class, presentations, not a big fan of loud bars but I do force myself to go out, initiating and maintaining 'small talk' and basically just being the center of attention. As soon as the teacher says, 'let's go around the room' my heart races and I can't breathe. Awful. I try to breath really slow, think of coping thoughts and nothing seems to work. I have a lot more to say but I don't want to ramble too long. Anyway, thanks for reading.
