Social Anxiety Coping Methods Needed

[Hinata97]

Does anybody else get social phobia? Any coping methods? I mostly get socially anxious in classrooms as I had traumatizing experiences in my youth... just being in a class of my peers makes me freeze up with social anxiety. Any help or suggestions much appreciated!

[Hidden]

I know how that is. Middle school, high school and college were all nightmares filled with embarrassing moments. The anxiety made me so dumb, I would end up in a lot of embarrassing situations. So self conscious. Sertraline clears that all up for me. I'm back to my preteen energetic self lately. So maybe try increasing seretonin in natural ways. A lot of vitamin deficiencies can cause anxiety. Tryptophan is important for making seretonin so it can help to eat more foods high in tryptophan. Also make sure you dont have any diseases that cause malabsorption like celiac disease. This disease is proven to cause depression and anxiety. I just met someone on here a few days ago who had celiac but was unaware that it could cause anxiety/depression. She was struggling a lot with her depression/anxiety. I do believe I have celiac but its extremely challenging to diagnose and my doctor screwed up my test. I've got thyroid disease which is known to occur with celiac disease. Thyroid disease can also cause anxiety/depression. That's all I can tell you. There was no way I was getting over my anxiety by thinking positive or putting myself out there. Anyways I hope this is helpful in some way.

[CaityCat]

I struggle with social phobia as well. For example, if I see someone from school or work in the grocery store, I have to hide. It doesn’t matter how I feel about the person, I might like them, even be friends with them, but the notion of seeing them outside of their “natural” environment is so uncomfortable for me. I think about how awkward it would be to see them, how they would examine everything in my cart, how the next time I see them at work/school, they’ll mention seeing me at the store. I don’t have to deal with this too often because I rarely see people I know at the store, but when it does happen, I either go out of my way to avoid them or just leave the store. I’m not sure how else to cope with it.