my social anxiety comes and goes and i'm trying to figure out why; what causes it and why does it go away. sometimes i'll go out and i'll feel panic set in and other times i'm totally fine. there's no rhyme no reason for it but there has to be, right? my psychiatrist told me to journal my social outings and what i do lead up to them. i went out with friends last night and swear i almost had a full blown panic attack. i had to run out of there and didn't even tell anyone. i texted them later. they must think that i've lost my mind. just said i was feeling ill. ugh. it stinks.
social anxiety is getting worse
Posted on: Sat, 09/28/2019 - 5:10am
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Hi Bali, I wish I could understand it as well. I was just talking to a friend about it and trying to make sense of it but I can't. I've talked to my psychiatrist about it too. Why do I feel fine one moment and then another moment a really bad wave of anxiety hits me. I've been there too, where I've had to run out of a place because I started feeling panicky. It's the worst feeling.
Bali, I know how difficult that can be, as I deal with it myself. When I had panic attacks more regularly and they would come out of nowhere social settings were a very scary place for me. I could barely walk out the door let alone go to a social function. I didn't have panic attacks for a while and that helped get some confidence back but in the back of my mind I would still worry about it. Being out makes us feel a lot more vulnerable. Home is my safe space and spending time with a certain friend makes me feel safe, but outside of that, I feel vulnerable. I can say that what helped me during a more confident period was getting out more and seeing that it wasn't bad. I would take baby steps; meet a friend for an hour for coffee or a walk, then work my way up to smaller group outings. When I would do group outings I would always have an exit strategy and let people know in advance that I may need to leave early. This made me feel a lot more free and not locked down. Once I get over this hump of panic attacks again I plan to get out there again because I know that it's good for me.
I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what my triggers of anxiety were, especially my social anxiety. One of the main triggers for me was suppressing emotions. I never understood why I sometimes felt fine with social outings and other times it's debilitating. My therapist and I recognized the pattern to be suppressing of my emotions. We also tested this out. I would suppress and low and behold the anxiety would be intense. When I would work through it then I was able to go out calmly and peacefully.