Flora said 10 years, 1 month ago:

I know what you mean. I’ve been miserable my whole life and I didn’t even know what was wrong with me. I thought I was just shy but I want to communicate with people and get to know them. I have no true friends that I feel I can call on when I need someone to talk to. The funny thing is it’s not them it’s me. I can’t have a meaningful relationship because I can’t state my opinion or say what I want. I just give in to what they want and then get upset and push them away later because they did what I agreed to. If I had just expressed how I felt, things would have been different.

The hard part is there is not much therapy out there for social anxiety. I couldn’t even imagine going to a therapist and telling them how I felt. That in it’s self would be terrifying. That’s why I never have went. But, I have recently started an audio series that focuses on what helps instead of what causes our social anxiety. One of the things they tell us to practice is acceptance of ourselves the way we are, flaws and all. Another thing is defining those automatic negative thoughts as what they are- liars. We’ve been conditioned and brainwashed all or most our lives so it will take some conditioning to change the negative thoughts to positive ones. I can say I’ve seen a difference in myself and the way I think just in the 8 weeks I’ve been working on it. It’s not a quick fix but what keeps me going is the thought that one day it will be permanent and automatic. I hope this helps and if you ever need to talk just message me. Anytime.