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What to do
Mon, 2010-04-19 13:47 | by Anonymous
Hello everyone. I'm a 19 year old freshman in college and live with social anxiety. I have been living with this condition ever since i moved to new schools in the 7th grade. When I was younger i had many many friends at school but when i moved i found it very hard to make new friends esp. at that age. In high school i rarely went to parties and when i did i would never go talk to the people i wanted to unless they came to me. When i look back on my high school career all i see is lost opportunities i had. There were so many girls who had crushes on me that i let get away because i was too afraid to talk to them. I can't keep on living like this..
I have to tell my parents about this so they can help me get help. The thing is, is i have no idea how to do this and i'm nervous about what they may say to me(imagine that). Should i call? Email? Somethihng must be done
Hi I am 19 and have been
Hi I am 19 and have been suffering from GAD for 10 years and that has developed into social anxiety. I am about to start my sophomore year of college, but I would not have made it this far with out my parents support. I would just try to talk to the person you are most comfortable with and just try to see the best way to say it. Anxiety runs in my family, but yet I am still they don't always understand where I am coming from. I let my grade school and high school days go to waste, but once I was able to get support I started to make some progress. I am a girl going into a predominately male area of study and I am a leader on my campus. A few years ago this would not have been possible, but my parents were there for me even though they never really truly understood what was going on.
Trying to help
I'm an 18 year old, about to be, freshman in college and I've been living with GAD for 10 years. I didn't realize what it was until last year. There are a lot of self-help books for Social Anxiety on Amazon.com you could purchase that could help you. I use them, along with a therapist, and they helped me a lot more than I thought they would. You can also join a support group for Anxiety. Some colleges have mental health programs in them and that could be helpful to you. If you're on a tight budget, there are federal mental health clinics and low income clinics you can go to, as well.
I think that you should tell your parents about your anxiety. Probably over the phone or face-to-face. You might even want to start off by just telling one parent you're closer to and see how they react and then tell the other one if all goes well.
It may be comforting to know that you're not alone and that once you overcome your anxiety, it won't ever come back. I'm not going to lie, it takes some time to recover, and might take some months or even years to treat. You basically need to retrain your brain to think differently.
I really hope this helps you.<3