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[emeraldwilwarin]

Okay, I think I've figured out why I'm so terrible at this whole journal thing; I'm still extremely uncomfortable with talking about myself and things going on in my life. Maybe I was always this way, but I feel so much more guarded now. Somewhere in the past few years I simply stopped talking about things, and it's as if I have to re-teach myself

Comments

[edensaints]

You fit everything for social anxiety. How do I know? I was a housebound agoraphobic *the most severe of social anxiety* for over 6 months. I couldn't leave the house AT ALL for a majority of my pregnancy. The fear was painful and gripping..

It was the worst experience of my life, and I never want to see it happen to anyone else.

Scary as it sounds, you HAVE to take charge and push through it, or you could end up never leaving the house at all. I won't go into details so publicly, but things were so bad, I had to have my mom force me out and into a car to drive over a 100 miles to get out of that situation. It was bad.

If you need help, I can help, and counselors are good too. Just let me know what you need *hugs*

[emeraldwilwarin]

Thank you, darling. That is terrible what you went through during your pregnancy and I am so awfully sorry you had to experience this, but it also sounds extremely familiar. We've spoken about this on MySpace a bit, but I still had to reply here and just thank you for reading this and commenting

[lotus82]

I've a friend who's pretty much like you described yourself to be - encased in his shell [even in his apartment, which he calls his lair], hard to draw out, etc. He's actually a very smart, very intelligent guy, and you can have an awesome conversation with him, but first you need to tempt him into one. And that's not easy. I mean, me and him go to school together and we dated briefly before I met John, and we've been very good friends for 3 years now, but even with me, he'd still be sort of closed-up and I need to bait him.
He does have social anxiety and was taking some medicine for it for some time.

[emeraldwilwarin]

All of that rings painfully true for my situation. I'm assuming your friend was/is also in therapy, and if so, did it help him any? How did the medication work for him? Is he doing a little better now? Sorry for bombarding you with questions. :)

Even if I don't go on medication (I'm already on so many things and I don't know if any kind of anxiety medication would mix with everything), just talking with someone and finding some ways to cope might be what I need.

[lotus82]

He wasn't in therapy as far as I know. He just doesn't seem like the type for it, you know? He can certainly talk about what's bothering him, but more in a friendly setting than in a professional-therepeutic one.
THe meds did improve the situation, from what I could see. I think that while on them, he also acquired some more social skills, because it was easier to do so, and they stuck with him, which is certainly beneficial. He does have very interesting conversations with our other classmates, something I haven't really seen him do since we first became friends.