I'm a 29 year old guy who has been plagued with this problem my whole life. I'm just looking for someone who knows what I'm going through. I just recently discovered social anxiety was my problem. I have searched for answers for years, but that common misconception that people with social anxiety have panic attacks all the time is what threw me off. When I finally started reading peoples stories about social anxiety I almost started crying. It was some relief just to know there are others like me. I was diagnosed with severe depression years ago, but the medicine prescribed never helped. I have abused pain pills for years now to try to cope. Everyone that knows about the pills thinks that is the problem. But it's just one of the symptoms really. I have never been able to have a life because of this social phobia. I've been unemployed for a long time, finally started a new job about two weeks ago, and I still find myself looking around at normal people talking to each other. And I'm always there alone. I worry about everything. It's just like I'm in one world and everyone else is in a different one. I have played hide and seek in stores to avoid running into people I know. When I do talk, it's hard to hear me and I'm so self conscious of the sound of my voice. I was a straight A student in school up until high school when I dropped out. My dad left around that time and I hated school because of the being nervous all the time so I quit. People didn't understand it, but if you have no life, no friends it's hard to be motivated to do anything. Now I feel like my whole life has been thrown away because of this condition. I can never be comfortable around anyone. There's so much more, but don't want to make it too long. Right now I don't have insurance or anyway to have therapy or treatment of any kind. I just would like to hear from someone that knows how this feels.