For more than a year I have been struggling with depression and anxiety. Also, I am quite introverted and not very talkative even before the depression. Because of this, my social anxiety spiraled: moreover, I realized that I was too focused on my past romantic relationship in the past 2 years, and did not even make any new friends at college, which made me feel quite lonely, increasing my depression levels.
I decided to change that and started to approach people this semester: talking to some guys after classes, visiting university-wide events, etc, but it seemed that nothing has been working. I often felt like I had nothing to talk to people about, was afraid of awkward silence, and felt very vulnerable and anxious about proceeding with the conversation. Yes, we would talk and joke for a bit, but the relationships just didn’t seem to move past the casual small talk, and I would make all the moves to invite people to hang out outside of the classroom environment, which really depressed me.
Last week we went out to a bar with one of the student clubs I am part of, and I sat near this girl, to whom I talked before only briefly. We ended up talking for 2 hours straight, finding a lot in common, and I believe she is a very interesting person. Yesterday she texted me and asked if I wanted to hang out and watch some Halloween movies, and the invite got me very happy – for the first time this semester I wasn’t the one initializing the hang-out, and for the first time in a long time, a person considered me to be interesting enough to continue talking to me. So this is my small victory in a battle with social anxiety.
4 comments
That’s amazing, congratulations!
From someone who’s also dealing with social anxiety, I think that even the fact that you started initializing conversations and stuff is a small victory!
Congratulations! Go forth and enjoy hanging out with her. You are amazing and brave!
Congratulations, you give us hope
Keep going!
Congrats! Take this win and build on it. Approach people with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. Have some passion for: yourself, other people, LIFE ITSELF.
Good luck!