People Are Terrifying
Trying to live my best life despite social anxiety.
Hasn’t everyone been anxious at some point?
As an emotion, feeling anxiety or fear is common enough, and no doubt there is an evolutionary reason we have those feelings. However, when those anxious thoughts and feelings become more than just a temporary reaction to a short-term stressor, they can become debilitating.
Most of us have experienced the regular, helpful type of anxiety that allows us to respond to immediate threats to our safety. Many of us have also learned to live with seemingly irrational fears or phobias. Some deal with generalized anxiety that has all their senses on alert. And some of us only experience that heightened sense of alarm in specific, predictable situations.
This is where my anxiety comes into play. Sure, I am terrified of snakes, but I don’t let that fear ruin my life. But being scared of people or crowds? Well, that is a lot harder to handle on a day-to-day basis.
When someone tells you that they have social anxiety, what exactly do they mean?
Social anxiety is knowing you need to schedule a doctor’s appointment for that pain coming from your lower back. You enter the phone number into your cell and stare at the screen as you build up the courage to place the…
