Lack of support

I've never fully explained it to anyone. It's hard to unless the other person can relate, and you'd pretty much have to have it to relate. My parents understood a little, just that I was painfully shy, and were supportive, but they're both dead now. My siblings I believe think I'm just lazy and unmotivated. I'm the baby of the family, and I think they see me as just that a "baby." There's no sympathy or support there for sure. I don't talk about it because I assume they'd think it was an excuse. In times past when I've talked about my anxiety, I'd get a response like, "Oh everybody gets nervous" so I quit talking about it. I have my children and my dogs, but they don't really know what social anxiety is I don't think, with the exception of one of my dogs -- he totally gets me. He cries and howls when I leave the house without him my oldest son told me, and he doesn't stop crying until I get back. He knows I'm not okay out there alone. :O)