I'm too nervous to go to Subway. If my daughter wants to I just give her the money and let her choose my sandwich. Luckily she knows exactly what I like and so far I haven't had any weird food.

I’m ACTIVELY trying to make friends, but the actions that take me extreme effort to do are apparently natural for everyone.

YES!!! These people are genuinely some of the best people! We ALL need people like this in our lives!

Or when you finish a assignment in class and you wait for someone else to turn it in first so that you know it's now okay to go turn it in too

Most stressful job I ever had: I was thrown into being an emergency auction pit crew helper. I wasn't supposed to have to talk so I didn't practice. They have me hold up, white gloves and all, this really old pistol that was for sale. ( Nonworking) the auctioneer looks down at me and in front of 600 people says, " well there, Miss Sheila, that looks interesting, why don't you tell us about it " and to my horror a microphone appeared in front of me. Y'all I thought I was gonna die! Lucky me, my secret stupo-stupendous super power is the power of SILLY. It does come out under stress. I said ," auctioneer John, this here, is a whidjadidjya!" He looked at me, replied, " do tell! " I said, "as in y'all didn't bring your gun whidja did ja? ( With you did you)" after everyone laughed I was able to say ,"17th century Turkish dueling pistol with mother of pearl inlaid grips."

I literally did this today with a napkin at a student of the month party

Or holding in a cough or sneeze because you don’t want to interrupt anything. I’ve even held in having to go the bathroom so I wouldn’t disturb the meeting, etc.

And then realising your car keys were in the same hand as the apple core and are now in the bin too, so you have to wait until the meeting is over and the room is empty before you can fish them out. Of course you spend the rest of the meeting dreading that someone will pop into the room and empty the bin.

Okay, I know I have anxiety, but when I read this, I understand the very many levels of anxiety and the bricks people carry around in their bodies and minds. I hope writing this and reading others' experiences lightens the load. Love you all.

Changing the way you walk 'cus a group of people was laughing and obviously it was about you and the way you walk 'cus you walk weird. So you start to walk differently which is probably more weird then it was before. Or is that just me? 🙈🤔

I once dropped out of college because I couldn't take these feelings when walking through the hall to get to class much less doing group projects or the get-in-a-circle discussions.

Maybe this is normal and being an extrovert is abnormal

Wait..... What was this meeting about?

And now 45 minutes into the meeting and you don't know what the hell is going on because you were too worried about the apple. 🤦🏽‍♀️

It's only ten feet away. Yeet that puppy at the can. If you make it, you're now a hero with the group's respect. If you miss, you're now a sympathetic human with relatable failings. Win win. As far as the walk to the can...always remember people are way too busy thinking about themselves to bother thinking about you. Embrace your anonymity. I used to have crippling social anxiety until I figured that one out.

After getting to #8 and realizing I have/are done/doing the exact same things. I was today old when I epiphanized I have social anxiety

I always suffered from thinking that I walked funny and everyone was always watching and noticing.

If you get up to throw your apple core away, the stares are not because you threw something away, it's because you crunched on the loudest & weirdest snack ever in a business meeting!!! Who eats an apple in a business meeting?

THE 3rd PARAGRAPH IN THIS IS SO TRUEE

Don't eat apples in meetings! It's impolite, because you can't eat an apple without any noise.

I didn't know other people feel this way. OMG

Ayo wtf that was me in class, I didn't realize that wasn't normal lol

This person just summed up my life.

I wouldn't have been eating an apple in front of people in the first place.

As an adult, I will do the STUPIDEST things to avoid being watched because of my anxiety.

My whole life summed up in a few paragraphs.

This feels weirdly familiar.

Your mom felt that

"Imagining myself in situations that will never exist" seriously like 25% of my life is me reading a book but accidentally going off-track and not realizing

There were/are so mqny of us!! 🧡

I think it’s because social anxiety centres around you personally, and when it crosses over the focus shifts on someone else and it’s not about you anymore, it subsides and you can do the thing, probably how i feel too

All. The. Time. Lol - 2nd hand embarrassment is the worst

Country roooads take meeee home 🎶

I've done this. It's hard maintaining relationships when you don't want to be a burden to the other person. I feel you.

Try me, 8 YEARS later still thinking about it... Stupid brain

Sequel to unsee juice, forget juice

Noted

With MY voice?? As in, the one I have?? To USE OUT LOUD????

Good point!