1. Making Friends
One of the hardest things about having social anxiety is making friends. It takes time for people with social anxiety to open up to new people. Therefore, we come off as shy or sometimes even rude when people first meet us. Don’t take it personal if I (or anyone who might have social anxiety) seems like they don’t want to talk to you or if we seem like we don’t have much to say. We do, it’s just hard for us to actually say what we want to say.2. Talking to teachers/professors/bosses (basically any “adult” or person in power)
Talking to people in general is tough for people with social anxiety but, it’s even harder to talk to people who have authority (mostly professors and bosses). It’s hard to ask questions or ask for help even if we get behind or don’t understand something.3. Buying/paying for Things
Checking out at a store or paying for food is near impossible for people with social anxiety. For me personally, (and I’m sure other people have had similar problems) there are times I’ve gone to a store ,walked to the cash register and then turned around, put the item(s) back and walked out of the store because I was too nervous to confront the cashier and buy the item. Thankfully, self check outs have become more common.
4. Ordering food
Ordering food, especially at restaurants like Chipotle or Subway where you have a bunch of choices can be hard. It puts a lot of pressure on people with social anxiety because we’re confronted with making a choice but we have to make it pretty quickly and in our mind we feel like we’re being judged not only for our choice but, also for how long we take to make our choice. After getting our food, we sometimes regret getting what we got. Sometimes we even think about trying something new but, have gotten so used to ordering the same thing we worry too much that we won’t like what we get.
5. Making choices/plans
Whether it be picking a place to eat, where to hang out with friends, or what movie to go see, people with social anxiety are terrible at making choices. We over analyze each possible choice and when we finally make a choice we quickly change our minds in fear of making the wrong one. Even when we’ve made our final choice we still are afraid we have made the right choice, before during and even after the event happens. People with social anxiety are also bad at making plans. We’ll go with flow when are friends make the plans but, when we are put in charge we worry that our friends won’t want to participate in the plans we make.
6. Talking on the phone
People with social media will avoid physically talking to someone on the phone at all cost. We would rather email, text, message ect rather than call. In some ways talking to someone on the phone is worse than talking to them in person. Problems arise when making a phone call is inevitable for example, calling for an employer or potential employer, calling your credit card company ect. Thankfully, a lot of things like ordering food, requesting a service or submitting information can all be done online now.7. Keeping Friends
Making friends is hard but, after we’ve made them it doesn’t get any easier. Like all friendships, We constantly have to keep up with our friends, but more so than normal friendships. People with social anxiety are in constant worry that their friends will get tired of dealing with them and not want to be friends with them anymore.Most times we’re just over exaggerating but, there are times that people with social anxiety do lose friends because their friends can’t deal with it anymore.
8.Being Alone
One of the biggest fears someone with social anxiety has is being alone. We worry about making friends and finding someone to date. When we become close to someone we sometimes become overly clingy and needy. There are times we need to be with someone, anyone at all times. When we aren’t around people we become depressed and start to worry too much. We want to make sure they stay in our lives and unintentionally push them away.9. Being in a huge crowd
People with social anxiety have a constant battle of being alone or being with someone. We struggle making and keeping friends but, also need to friends to help reassure us. But, having too being in a huge crowd (at a party, sporting events,, amusement parks or in big cities ect) is stressful for us. We start to feel claustrophobic and might even have panic or anxiety attacks. That’s why we only have a few close friends and prefer small get-togethers.
10. Driving
Driving is also stressful for people with social anxiety, even people who are really good drivers. We constantly worry about making a wrong turn, doing something to cause an accident and we worry too much about the drivers around us.
11. Drawing Attention
One, if not the scariest thing about having social anxiety is having attention drawn to us. Whether it be giving a speech or presentation during a class or something as simple sneezing or getting up to throw something in class, we hate having unwanted attention drawn to us. Even if no one is actually watching us we feel like they are.
11, Worrying about pretty much everything
Overall, people with social anxiety worry about everything. We worry about being late or being too early. We worry we aren’t good enough for our friends, family and significant others. We worry we won’t be successful, we won’t get good grades even if we tried our best. Living life in constant fear and worry gets tiresome. But no matter what we do, social media always seems to take over our lives
