just because i know this will be relevant to my flist's interests....

[lirazel]

Social Anxiety Is...
Not all of these apply to me, but quite a few do. The one that hit me the hardest?

Social anxiety is staying in your dorm room during meals instead of braving the dining hall.

My entire freshman year. I ate the bad to-go food so that I could eat it in my room during lunch so that I wouldn't have to go up to the cafeteria. I went to dinner with my roommate if she was around, but other than that, it was always the to-go stuff. And on the weekends I seriously didn't leave the dorm except to grab food. Gah. I just had horrible flashbacks.

Comments

[ghostrunner7.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. I've done that. I hate eating alone in public. Or at all, really.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

OH HAI THIS IS ME

[ceciliaj.livejournal.com]

Social anxiety is traveling an hour into the city to a new bar with your significant other to see a World Cup soccer match and having a panic attack at the door because there are too many people there.

Flashbacks flashbacks flashbacks...*sigh*

[gwtwscarlett.livejournal.com]

"Social Anxiety is having to give yourself a pep talk when you walk into a salon for a haircut because the casual small talk with the hairdresser stresses you out beyond belief. And changing your hair salon even after a good cut because you get stressed and anxious that you probably said something stupid and they might remember you."

OMG, that is so me. Thank God I recently found a hair cutting place made for people like me. It employs 10-15 enthusiastic young people, only walk-ins instead of appointments, you get your hair done fast and without any chitty chatty bullshit.

I never envy a FB status though, cause that's usually just pretentious bullshit.

[deird1]

Social anxiety is driving all the way to someone's house for a party, sitting motionless in your car for ten minutes, and then giving up and driving home.

:(

[local-max.livejournal.com]

Disclosure: I live in a student house, but I'm not very, er, close with them. I haven't cooked all this year because I don't want to talk to housemates. I also avoid going out of the house to get food if they're milling around. Which means sometimes I have to wait until the middle of the night to eat, after they've gone to sleep. And I don't keep any food that needs to be refrigerated.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

When I was at uni I was pretty much eating in the middle of the night because I ended up feeling too nervous to use the kitchen when people were in there :/

It was awful because the other people on my floor were outside my room at one point banging on the door and speculating about whether or not someone actually lived in there (we didn't have roommates) because I was so fearful of leaving my room when there were people milling around outside

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

I...was the person who wheedled people into going to the cafeteria with me because going alone made me feel friendless. Heh. With all those people hanging out at the ~tables. We still brought food back to the dorms though. Who doesn't think it's better to eat in your dorm while watching Love Actually?

[catbirdfish.livejournal.com]

The hairdresser thing. And the elevator thing.

Social anxiety is getting flustered at Shopper's and buying a box of Special K that you didn't even want instead of the chocolate you came to buy because you're afraid the cashier will judge you for your purchases. Or leaving Shopper's without everything on your list because you need to get out of there NOW.

Thanks for the link. It's nice to be reminded that I'm not crazy and alone in this.

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

Social anxiety is preferring for people to think you are cold rather than having them find you unlikable.

...

Yep.

[next_to_normal]

Oh man, so many of those resonate with me.

The dining hall thing, so much - although I actually got more antisocial as college went on. Freshman year I ate in the dining hall all the time; by senior year I never went there (that's also when I started watching Buffy!)

Even now, at work, I eat my lunch at my desk almost all the time, because I don't want to eat out alone.

My most recent trauma: when you're meeting people somewhere and you're the first one there, and then you have to stand around awkwardly by yourself. Ugh - especially at a bar, because who goes to a bar by themselves?

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Social anxiety is crawling out of a window to avoid walking past your roommate sitting in the living room. THIS WAS DURING MY EXTREMELY BAD DEPRESSION PHASE.

Or pretending you're not home when people come to check on you to make sure you're okay. You know how Troy told Abed to pretend they were asleep? DONE THAT.