How has SA affected you in a particular activity in life?

For me, it's driving. Two of my close friends and countless of cousins, family friends are all uber-super confident when it comes to driving on the road. When it comes to weddings, they hire out expensive cars and drive them with no fear.

The legal age to drive in the UK is 17. When I was 16, my brother used to drop off us at school. He showed me how to start the car so in the cold mornings I could start it up to get the engine warm. I was doing it fine then one-day, call it me being half asleep, I had the joystick in gear, and ended up grazing the front left of the car. My brother had a go, rightly, comparing me to others who could even drive the car and I grazed this car starting it up!

That incident has dogged me since. If I was sat in a car that was running, on my own, I'd think: "Oh man, get (the driver) back quick! The car might automatically shove in gear and ram me to the car front! Or someone might horn and ask me to move it". I passed my test one third attempt in 2009, didn't drive for another 3 years as I had no money. But, last year, feeling "brave", I bought my brother's brother in-laws car for a grand. I thought, let's challenge this head on. I got everything sorted, paperwork wise and I was ready to go. The car was parked at an angle in my driveway so needed to reverse it out. I decided to venture out and show my close friend the car.

When trying to reverse my new car out of the drive to visit my friend, I scraped the drivers' side on the wall with my family members, annoyingly, watching and one of them having to come out and move the car out for me. After I'd hit it, I asked my brother in law to reverse it back in to the drive as I was so embarrassed/angry/humiliated that I made an excuse to my friend that I couldn't make it

Following on from then, I took the car to work twice. Few times I came home unscathed but the last time I took the car to work, I hit the car again on the wall, stalled it tons of times, and when I got to the work car park, I didn’t realise I needed to swipe my card to open the barrier. This grumpy old sod barked at me to do it, then I lost my swipe card in the rush. Since then, I’ve hardly driven the car. I can’t even go out and start it up as I’m so paranoid that everyones watching me fail or laugh if I fail. Never mind me take the car out. My brother has a go at me for not driving it but I think, if only you knew….

I just take the bus to town if need be. I wish I was on my own, then I wouldn’t have to worry about being judged or looked upon.

So there it is!

For years I had enormous trouble eating in front of anybody because of shaking, so any social or work activities that involved eating or drinking resulted in huge anxiety. It caused me to leave jobs and avoid socialising. I'm almost completely ok with it now, shaking does still happen from time to time but I don't let it get to me.

I can relate to both of you so far. I am from the suburbs of Chicago, and driving around town is fine. I'm even alright with the expressway. It is once I get to the hectic, close quarters of the downtown area that I grow anxious. I will not parallel park unless it is 2am on a residential street.

I still have trouble eating in front of people. I can't go out for sushi unless it's just with my girlfriend. The thing that bothers me most about this is that I don't shake nearly as much when I'm alone, so I know it is a superficial side of me that evokes such anxiety.

A huge one for me is taking pictures. Everyone has cell phones these days and if I am given one to take a picture I start shaking and get extremely embarrassed. Sometimes I even get shaky having a picture taken of me. I guess when someone tells me to be still, I get nervous. I work at a tattoo shop with no intention of ever tattooing because of this. Good thing I'm in school for IT.

I can't eat in front of people. I can't deal with crowds and i always feel like people are looking at me so i won't go shopping or to a pub by myself.

I used to stop going to service stations, restuarants, supermarkets, newsagents, because people would pick up on my anxiety and respond to it, often unkindly.

There are only so many in town, and soon I ran out of options. For me the auto check out in Woolies was a miracle, I could shop and rarely have to deal with people.

Going through drive-thrus at fast food joints used to be an anxiety-provoking situation, but it's not much of an issue anymore (plus I only drive if I'm in my hometown, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing).

I still have trouble with eye contact in social situations that aren't interviews. I have no idea why.

A few triggers for my anxiety, are signing my name in front of people (hands shake), people walking beihind me, my legs turn to jelly (think they are watching and tease me), people on the periphery of my vision, I am scared they will notice me looking, exchanging change or any item by hand.

I haven't eaten with anyone for perhaps twenty five years, except for my family on a handful of ocassions.