This truly is the biggest issue I’ve ever had. It’s absolutely horrible. I cannot get comfortable around people anymore. And by comfortable, I mean not super socially anxious. I cannot make relationships or connections anymore because of this and if I stay this way I will never find a partner, friends, or have any kind of relationship at all and will honestly kill myself.
It extends past new people too – I’m not longer comfortable around people I should be extremely close to, such as my parents, cousins, friends, etc, all people I used to be super comfortable with. Basically I no longer have the ability to have relationships with people, all they are now are awkward, disappointing husks of a connection. I didn’t used to be like this, I used to be able to get totally comfortable around people somewhat quickly. Slower than other people but I still very much became comfortable around people.
This is absolutely due to my social anxiety disorder by the way. I’ve had it to some degree my whole life but it really only started becoming a huge issue like 4-5 years ago. Ever since then It’s been getting harder and harder to connect with people and has become nearly impossible now.
I’m in therapy, I’m tried like 7 different medications, am on one right now in fact, have done everything I’m supposed to but it hasn’t made a dent. I just need help. I really do. I just want to be able to connect with people man, I don’t care if it takes weeks to be able to I just want to, so so badly. I want to have a normal relationship with my parents again, with my friends, with everyone else. This is so fucking horrible.