Hey Firoz. Check out the social anxiety support group (the first link i posted). It's probably a better starting point for somebody who has serious anxiety. And trust me, you won't be the only one there who has serious anxiety. The meetups are much quieter with smaller numbers of people. I believe most are capped so that a maximum of 10 can attend. And nobody has to speak if they don't want to. It's not rare at all for a new member to go an entire night without saying a single word.
The second group (extremely shy-looking for friends) can definetely be overwhelming for any first timers. Many of the people who attend events are not shy at all, and many more have largely overcome their shyness since joining the group.
Anyways my experiences with the group have almost been exclusively positive. I'm not exaggerating to say that these two groups together transformed my life (in a good way).
I remember the first time I attended a meetup event, it was for the first group. I felt at the time that I was coming off as being extremely awkward, especially compared to some of the other attendees who seemed to be able to converse quite well despite their anxiety. So that first meetup experience wasn't great for me. But despite that, I forced myself to keep coming out to the events, and over time it became easier and easier. Now if you met me at an event (and on a good day), you would probably never guessed that I was once a nervous anxious wreck in that setting.
I browse these forums pretty frequently, even though I never post, and it always saddens me to come across posts by people who are sad or depressed because they have nobody close to them in their life. I wish they lived in Vancouver, because if they did, I would tell them to join this group. I have seen so many people, many of whom have the most serious cases of social anxiety, have their lives transformed by the better for these groups. If you're looking for friends in Vancouver, then please don't let these amazing resources go unused. i can almost guarantee that if you can force yourself to come out to events, then you will eventually meet somebody whom you will one day call a close friend in your life.
And there is no worst case scenario here. Nobody is going to ridicule or make fun of you because of your anxiety or anything else for that matter. People won't even look at you funny.
So yah, I kind of rambled on there with that sales pitch. Sorry about that. I was mostly talking about the extremely shy group. The social anxiety support group is more serious, and although it still provides opportunities for making friends, the chance that you'll meet somebody that you click with is probably slimmer.
So I'll end this post here. If anybody would like to meet up in a smaller group prior to a large event, perhaps just for people on this forum then i'm always up for that as well. Going to a large event alone can be extremely difficult. But I think going with a group of people that you at least kind of know makes it a lot easier.
/end post.
