Let me tell you a little back story of how I managed to overcome social anxiety.
So currently I am 20 years old, and back when I was 14 I got into a school where I didn’t like anyone, and no one liked me. During this time I used to have a best friend since I was 5 years old, but other than that I was all alone. Because of this I ofcourse started to fall behind in terms of social skills. At the time I wasn’t smart enough to understand, so I never felt like fixing it. This went on for a couple of years.
When I was about 17 I had 2 friends, and I met my first girl. Life was good, but after a year I found out my 2 best friends were consistently sxually assaulting girls. I cut them off and all I had left was my her and my social anxiety.
Now last November things ended. I knew I was gonna be al alone if I ended things, but I never could’ve imagined the journey that was waiting for me. Also to state that I rotted my brain by playing fortnite and later watching TikTok basically from age 14-17.
Being alone all the time gave me a lot of time to think, and I soonly realised I was very antisocial. In about a month or 2 my social anxiety became so bad that I started sweating in every social situation, or even on my way there. And by sweating I mean sweating through my shirt. I also felt anxious around people all the time. This went on for about half a year.
I realised I needed to fix myself or I’d live a life so lonely and anxious I never could’ve imagined. What I mean by fixing myself is cure my brain rotting, to be able to talk to people again. I started working on it by attending new hobbies like reading, exercising, catching up on movies/shows, music etc. All whilst having to get over my x. The first months were rough, but around spring I built some kind of social circle.
I had people to hang out with and even parties I got invited to for the first time in my life. Which of course scared the shit out of me. I spent a lot of time studying people and improving myself by learning party tricks for example. I also forced myself to talk to people although it freaked me out. You might’ve seen the Netflix show ‘Dexter’, well thats who I am without the serial killer part.
My social circle started to grow, and I am finally able to talk to people and even crack jokes here and there. People seem to truly like me for the first time in forever, and my schedule is full of things I enjoy. For the first time in months I feel happy, and for the first time in 6 years I am happy on my own.
For anyone reading this, if I can do it you can too! I think the key is to have self criticism and learn from others. At the end of the day socialising is based on a certain IQ. So just like how you study for a school test, you can study social skills as well.