Day brought completely down because of possible new diagnosis

[Winston18]

Hi everyone, this is my first post. A little bit of back story, I've been diagnosed with add anxiety and depression. I started a cocktail of meds a few months back. Specifically rexulti,Prozac, and lamictal. For about two months things seemed to be going great I was happier than I'd been in years and thought I was making progress on my social anxiety. One event that happened was the ending of two friendships. After this I started drinking and cutting myself to punish myself for the end of the friendship which I perceived to be my fault. From there things Piled on. I started to constantly think about how ashamed I was of my social anxiety and how much of a social mess up I was and drinking and cutting became somewhat of a habit. I showed up to a meeting at work hungover and with hidden scars beneath me. This all went on until today after a meeting with my psychiatrist. She told me that my behavior was reminiscent of the beginning stages of borderline personality disorder. And from this point on I realized I had to put a stop to this before I want full borderline. So I told me mom everything and almost got admitted to a hospital . I am asking anyone the following. How do you deal with social anxiety? and how do you cope with social anxiety? Any tips would be appreciated especially regarding coping with it besides drugs, cutting, or alcohol.

[Aspergirl47]

Hey Winston18....Sorry to hear of your struggles...Social anxiety was severe at 14 and still is...I was eventually diagnosed in 2014 with Aspergers...Social anxiety/Ocd ...I have tried lots of anti-depressants but nothing that helped...only small amounts of Valium/diazepam taken when needed...i.e any social interaction...helped a little but its very severe..probably due to Aspergers...Ive tried just telling myself that no one is bothering /judging me...their just there to have a good time....and if I felt panicky..i would just take slow deep breaths ...it worked sometimes ...I feel your pain its not easy ...always feeling your being judged...Hope in some way this helps...

[Winston18 in reply to Aspergirl47]

This does help me thank you for the feedback. I hope things start looking for you I can't imagine how hard it would be to live with Aspergers but you seem to have a lot of strength keep that up and realize you are stronger than you may think

[Aspergirl47 in reply to Winston18]

Thank u.. Yeah Aspergers isn't an easy condition to live with...I only found out 3yrs ago...later diagnosis....Strangely I always feel weak but like u said there must be strength there ... Hope everything turns out good for u...

[mdowning81]

Step one, look y po itself in the mirror and accept the fact that your are a bad ass individual full of all sorts of unique characteristics that tons of people will find interesting.

Step two recognize that this is an issue you have dealt with for awhile and it will take a while to reverse, you are going to have to expose yourself to some uncomfortable feelings and work through them, if you wait for yourself to all of a sudden feel great it probably won't happen.

Once you've done this its time to start exposing yourself to some social settings, I would recommend it not be a bar. One thing I did was identify one friend that I knew I could trust and then I just finely admitted to them everything that was going on within me. Then I asked them for help with breaking out of my cocoon. This was simple things like asking them to just organize a lunch with a small group of people or they had a cookout. They didn't let anyone know why we were getting together but it helped me to start exposing myself. That is the key to expose yourself to more and more situations. You will feel uncomfortable and awkward but you have to believe that these feelings and thoughts cannot hurt you and with each exposure you kicking anxieties butt! And eventually you will start feeling more and more comfortable. I still dont feel awesome when I think about going out but with some prodding from my wife and friends I'm getting out there and I usually have a good time.

[Aspergirl47 in reply to mdowning81]

Good post...

[Winston18 in reply to mdowning81]

Thank you for the tips I will keep all of this in mind this is very good advice.