Do I have social anxiety

96Neko

New member
I've had a really hard time talking to people for as long as I can remember. I was too scared to go to a regular school this year, so my parents have to home school me. It's something that gets in the way of my life a lot.

It's gotten somewhat better. I used to struggle to order food at a restaurant, or even greet the waiter. I'm able to do it with more ease now, but I still stutter and forget what I'm supposed to say for a moment. When I still went to a regular school, I never raised my hand in class because I didn't want everybody to pay attention to me at once. I also hated giving presentations, to the point that I would "forget" to do the research so I didn't have to present. I nearly failed 7th grade because of that, but I didn't care as long as I didn't have to give a presentation. Sometimes, even talking to people online scares me and I have to remind myself that if anything bad happens, I can just log off.

At one point it was so bad that when my mom tried to take me to school in the mornings I would cling to my step dad's shoulder and cry until they let me stay home. The anxiety was always so bad that I felt like someone was punching me in the stomach. My parents, of course, thought I just didn't want to go to school so they would yell at me and sometimes threaten to take my laptop away, which only made the anxiety worse and I would nearly vomit. I tried to explain to them over and over again that I didn't do it on purpose, it was just that a massive wave of anxiety would come over me and I wasn't myself anymore. They didn't understand so I gave up on trying to explain it to them.

My parents are fully aware of the problem but they say it's only a phase and I'll grow out of it, so they've never taken me to get diagnosed or anything. I don't know a lot about social anxiety because I don't have anybody to explain it to me so I don't know if that's what my problem is or if it's something else. I know I have a little bit of Asperger's syndrome, but other than that I've never been diagnosed with anything. I've heard it can cause problems with social interaction sometimes, but I've never heard about it causing problems like this. I also only have a really tiny amount of it to where it's not that noticeable to anyone who doesn't live with me, so I don't think it would be able to cause such a huge problem.

Do you think it's social anxiety? Also, is it something I need to get help for and how? And sorry for the long post, I tried to keep it short.
 

NathanielWingatePeaslee

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
Staff member
Hello, and welcome. :)

You express yourself really very well! Do you read a lot?

You'd need a professional to properly diagnose you, but you may have social phobia.

These links to the articles section may be of use to you.

http://www.socialphobiaworld.com/what-is-social-phobia-16959/

http://www.socialphobiaworld.com/social-phobia-symptoms-16960/

http://www.socialphobiaworld.com/social-phobia-diagnostic-16962/

In school I would sometimes raise my hand to ask a question, but almost every single time, I'd suddenly feel like everyone was staring at me, judging me, and judging how stupid my question was and I'd blush bright red like a tomato. I kept raising my hand anyway for some reason. It was like that stupid hand just shot up of its own accord somehow. :idontknow:
 

R3K

Well-known member
once you get educated yourself on social anxiety disorder, you need to present your research to your parents and try to convince them to let you go see a doctor about it.

the main reason they're not accepting it and saying it's just a phase is because they're afraid themselves. it's hard for parents to accept and deal with a child with SA. you're in a very difficult situation right now. just keep doing your research and build your "case" for your parents. ultimately you'll need their help in dealing with it as your life goes on.
 
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