• The Dark Side 💕 Welcome Guest 💕
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads Urgent Hotlines
    Bereavement Mindfulness
    Suicide Support Anger Management
  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | Eligiu | deficiT

Mental Health Social Anxiety

andrek159206 said:
I developed several addictions to drugs because of my social anxiety, opioids, coca, alcohol, benzos, but I tried everything I could not have before I started with them, and it didn't work, so I settle for living like this until the end.
Click to expand...
I hope you don't mind me saying that what you talk about sounds so bitterly negative, and sad. We can help a little here. Our ears are always open.
 
Pretty much every time is have any kind of social interaction even with my best friends I feel intense dread and a massive drive towards avoidance.

Best thing I be found is to repeat positive logical self talk. I remind myself that usually I am alright and even enjoy myself if I can just ignore the fear and keep on participating in life
 
TheAcetylationGame said:
Pretty much every time is have any kind of social interaction even with my best friends I feel intense dread and a massive drive towards avoidance.

Best thing I be found is to repeat positive logical self talk. I remind myself that usually I am alright and even enjoy myself if I can just ignore the fear and keep on participating in life
Click to expand...
most of the time I can talk soberly with my friends, but I work in a service that requires talking to strangers, and some drugs help me a lot,but my friends also have some social anxiety, so i feel in home use this drugs.
 
opioids make you not care about the problems, benzos zero anxiety, sertraline depression and social anxiety goes down, this last delay for the total effect, I don't know others.
 
andrek159206 said:
opioids make you not care about the problems, benzos zero anxiety, sertraline depression and social anxiety goes down, this last delay for the total effect, I don't know others.
Click to expand...
I take sertraline (and been on fifteen or so other antidepressants in the past) already and have done the whole merry go round with benzos including clonazepam many times and they lead nowhere good at least for me and I would never (or very unlikely to) be prescribed benzos while on methadone

And opioids have never made me feel like that. They always have had better anxiolytic and antidepressant effects than any psychiatric medications, even after spending my entire adult life dependent on them.

Really I find most psychiatric pharmaceuticals pale in comparison to working with a good psychologist to develop practical skills and strategies in managing your anxiety. I become an opioid addict largely as a last resort from treatment resistant anxiety and dysthymia that psychiatric medicine utterly failed to treat.

Lo and behold ten years later, to the ire of everyone who told me opioids would destroy me and leave me in the gutter if I went back after rehab - I’m very happy with where I am on methadone and with my mental health and I’m even working full time for the first time in my life :)

Thanks to opioids 🙏

(And a shitload of hard work and some very kind people in my life)
 
I suffer from crippling social anxiety, panic attacks and bouts of agrophobia. Shopping centres and supermarkets are a horrific time I've been so rattled out in public that I've just had to drop what I'm doing and run out of the place the more people the worse it is for me.
Valium is a good medication for myself at present 20-30mg and I am able to mix with the public. I've been through dozens of other meds dependant on Xanax for many years at the worse part of that experience I was taking 8mg to function and could go anywhere however I was a walking dead zombie. CBT therapy was no good, LNP also no help. Self hypnosis and meditation with the aid of Valium has been the most successful way of dealing with my anxiety and a few deep breaths can settle things sometimes also. But personally for myself Valium is the best thing, long half-life and just a settling thing to stop my mind from the millions of thoughts that turn my brain into a anxious and horrible time. It's a curse that I would not wish even on those I despise. That's my story anyway.
 
S.M.F.G said:
I suffer from crippling social anxiety, panic attacks and bouts of agrophobia. Shopping centres and supermarkets are a horrific time I've been so rattled out in public that I've just had to drop what I'm doing and run out of the place the more people the worse it is for me.
Valium is a good medication for myself at present 20-30mg and I am able to mix with the public. I've been through dozens of other meds dependant on Xanax for many years at the worse part of that experience I was taking 8mg to function and could go anywhere however I was a walking dead zombie. CBT therapy was no good, LNP also no help. Self hypnosis and meditation with the aid of Valium has been the most successful way of dealing with my anxiety and a few deep breaths can settle things sometimes also. But personally for myself Valium is the best thing, long half-life and just a settling thing to stop my mind from the millions of thoughts that turn my brain into a anxious and horrible time. It's a curse that I would not wish even on those I despise. That's my story anyway.
Click to expand...
Meditation is definitely helpful, helps me fall asleep too - how does self hypnosis work?
 
Social Anxiety is something I’ve struggled with for 10 years now. I tried CBT which didn’t help, I’d already implemented a lot of the techniques myself through online information & to be honest felt I knew better than the woman offering me the course which caused some problems. I try and avoid going to the GP has they never offer me anything apart from SSRIs which I didn’t want to take. I have taken pregabalin for a while but it ended up making me feel extremely low & then it was horrible coming off it, i had to taper off it which took a while. I then started taking 5htp daily for 2 years & I also found that this made me very up & down & even more anxious. If I missed one dose then I would have panic attacks. I think I am extremely sensitive to anything nowadays. I am happy to say that I am now at the stage where I am drug free, I last took 5htp in February which is a big deal as I thought I’d have to take it forever, I’m sleeping well, low levels of social anxiety which I can manage & I am enjoying my life. The one thing which seemed to help massively was having hypnotherapy, this seemed to reduce the horrible overwhelming anxiety where I struggled to be present in any kind of conversation, now I still have social anxiety but I manage it by running, going to the gym, I also stopped eating meat one year ago & I feel much better mentally. A combination of these things have all helped. I was taking ecstasy every weekend for about 5 years & then coke, this definitely didn’t help. Anyone struggling I would first stop all drugs for one year. Cut out alcohol. Try a plant based diet. Exercise. Lift weights. No coffee. Have a dose of magic mushrooms once or twice a year. These lockdowns have given me the opportunity to do this, I seemed to be stuck in this never ending cycle of going out to the pub & clubbing and drinking and taking drugs to almost manage my anxiety but it was just making my day to day living 100 times harder. I’ve finally broken the cycle for now. Much love to you all I know how hard it can be day to day feeling as if you are different from other people & it makes making friends so much more difficult. One more thing. Travel & see the world! India changed my perspective.
 
dreamflyer said:
Oh yeah, definitely. I actually posted about this on another forum recently (I can't remember which one at the moment).

I've always been extremely self-conscious about everything, no matter how silly it may seem. I'm always afraid of doing or saying something that will offend someone or make me look stupid.

I have to keep reminding myself that I have a pretty good understanding of social norms, and that 99% of the things that I worry about are perfectly fine to everyone else.

When I'm feeling "brave" I try to take myself out of my comfort zone by just acting naturally and not worrying about what anyone else thinks, like belting out a tune in my car with the windows down!

It seems to get easier with age as well. At 50 I'm not nearly as concerned with trying to impress people as I was when I was 15.

Peace, Love and Faith,
Dreamflyer
:D
Click to expand...

Yeah man I totally agree that as we get old this curse is no longer as debilitating as when young, even though I still have some difficult days.
 
TheAcetylationGame said:
Meditation is definitely helpful, helps me fall asleep too - how does self hypnosis work?
Click to expand...
I was taught by a Hypno therapist when I was younger while receiving treatment for some things that had happened to me, it's not so different from how she used to put me under I just start from the head and slowly start to feel everything go relaxed and loose. I imagine 10 stairs and begin walking down and with each step down I envision or will my head to intensify my relaxation deeper and deeper. By the time I decent these stairs I'm basically under.
Can be hard sometimes bit worth it I can reaffirm that I am a good person that tomorrow is going to be a good day, I even have a special place I can go to it's a pretty cool and effective thing if you're willing to go with it and take the suggestions.
Hypnosis on others has been a recent hobby I'm working on also now it's amazing what you can do if you can get everything right, there's a lot more tricks for working with someone else or a small group at a party for instance. But so far I have had some degree of success but I'm still really just a novice.
 
Hypnosis isn't real, it's just the placebo effect of whatever. The butterfly effect it's heavily associated with it.
 
Shady's Fox said:
Hypnosis isn't real, it's just the placebo effect of whatever. The butterfly effect it's heavily associated with it.
Click to expand...
The power of suggestion is a very real and powerful thing, and yes one can resist being hypnotized however I have had some very positive outcomes from using a few different techniques. So my opinion is never underestimate the power of the mind, and a schooled up mind can have a great degree of Influence over others, especially the more open to repeated suggestions or someone you have totally convinced that you are able to show them something cool for example or those who you have induced to believe and be open to the idea that you can give them an experience that is new, exiting or will have an outcome that will be of benefit or help to them.
 
supersonic89 said:
Hi guys.

Anyone else here on the forum with social anxiety?

How do you live day to day with it? How much has your life affected? Have you developed any problems (eg addiction) because of that? Do you follow any therapy or medication?

Probably very few people or those who are shy about registering or saying it will be posting here. I'm not afraid to say it.

People without social anxiety are also invited to give their opinion. At the end of the day I think we have all felt some level of anxiety or shyness in our lives. :unsure:
Click to expand...
Hey very brave of you to share. Nice to see as well because im a 33 year old male who suffers from SAD, MDD, and minor bipolar. My social anxiety was diagnosed at 15-16 years older and I was put promptly on Paxil. More or less I’ve been on psych meds, SSRI’s, benzos etc since I was 16. With that came my curiosity for self medicating. I did coke for awhile, always weed, but found my love and happy place was with opioids. Oxy especially. Took away anxiety and made me feel like the person I wanted to be. Cut to 5 years later i went from 3 pills a week to 30 every few days for 1100 usd. So I’m just burning money and woukd never steal so eventually the numbing of pain is ending. I’m on an outpatient suboxone treatment program but still stop the suboxone and will binge on oxy for days at a time. I am married and have kept this all a secret for years. I chalk up withdrawals and mood swings to my mental health which turns out to be a useful excuse. Drug addict get creative. I have made a life changing decision though. I will be starting ketamine therapy for depression, anxiety, ptsd, addiction starting next Friday evening. This is a real effort t try something non conventional I hope to heal my mind and see the world somewhat different. This ms for listening.
 
It feels like I was born with social anxiety, but I have only recently begun to understand that this has been my main problem in life. Mental health problems are often clustered together so that it can make untangling complicated problems and getting to the root cause of things challenging. This has certainly been the case for me; I have had many other issues complicating matters to contend with; issues such as mood problems, delusions, social adjustment, lack of perspective, negativity, a period of drug addiction, lack of problem solving ability, and attitude problems. Problems which by now have mostly been overcome, or overcome enough to leave little doubt of what the remaining core issue actually is. And also the problem has by now become very severe. Now that my problem solving abilities in general and general positivity of outlook have started to improve, I have begun a CBT course with a therapist, and this feels like it definitely has the potential to make a difference in my ability to cope with the levels of anxiety. I finally feel as if I have the abilty to effect change in my own life.

Due to the nature of the condition of social anxiety and being trapped inside it within my own head, it has so far been impossible so far to discuss this with any real łife family or friends. I've only recently begun thinking about how things might play out if I was to do so. People are often advised to talk about problems with friends and family; if you are lucky enough to have them you should lean on them for support. But I can't see it going well. People are judged on their social skills, and my family and friends have been so judgemental and critical about people with problems and difficulties with social mixing and anybody that is anyway "weird" that it makes talking about these problems with anybody very difficult. I'm not really blaming anybody for this; they are only human, and it's a human thing for any normal and socially well adjusted people to look down on those that aren't.

There is a longing to be understood. I can now look back on my own past with less shame and embarrassment now that I don't judge myself so harshly because I understand why things have been so difficult. But I don't think anyone else understands. I would like them to understand all the times when they have not understood. But I fear that if I was to share this secret then this would certainly ramp up the anxiety of social interactions a great deal. Once I've told them there would be no taking it back. It might change things for the worse for ever. This is without going anywhere near mentioning my issues with drugs and benzos. My family are socially conservative and respectable. To say this would not go down well is an understatement. They would never understand.
 
Last edited:
Oh yeah social anxiety here. Was on Zoloft when I was younger but i don't think it helped me really. 10 years old or so when i was scripted that. Meth deff made it worse during my early 20s. Opiates (hence the username) were my go to for social anxiety and it failed horribly. I take maybe 10-15mg of klonopin a month now for bad days.

Like a few others have said it diminishes with age, or at least for me it has. Im in my late 20s now. Some days are still a lot worse than others tho. At least my job has me interacting with new people daily and that's been the most helpful. More than any other drug is capable of. Just start putting yourself out there in situations no matter how uncomfortable or stupid it makes you feel. It does help
 
I've been a drug user - *recreationally*/*self-medicating* - for over 20 years now.

Here are a few things that took me too long to learn:

1) There is very little difference between recreational and self medication.
2) Self-medicating for anxiety will always make anxiety worse in the long run.

3) There is always a core reason people feel anxiety.
3) You know what you are afraid of.
3) You have to face this demon.
3) There is no other way.

4) If you can't face the demon alone, get help.
5) Get help anyway, just in case.

...

Maybe some people are doomed to be anxious, but I've personally helped many people overcome their anxieties. People in the recreational drug world recognize universally (pretty much) that the long-term solution to any psychological problem isn't taking drugs every day.

If you are anxious on a regular basis, there is something that needs to be unravelled. I do not recommend you take prescribed drugs - UNLESS you have homicidal/suicidal ideation or are experiencing extreme depression. Regardless what a doctor tells you. Don't start taking anti-anxiety medication on a regular basis, unless you really need to.

It's better to avoid social situations and work out what you need to work out.

Your mother or your sibling or your best friend might be concerned that you need to get out and party, because that's what you usually do, but maybe that's not what you need. Chemically altering people (after a typically brief diagnostic period) with drugs to help them socialize is bullshit IMO.

I posted a thread recently about monks.

I'd love to be a monk for three months.

That would be fucking amazing.

...

NOTE: This post contains no medical advice whatsoever.
 
Last edited:
Yes social anxiety but also don't really enjoy the company of people so there's that. Not much motivation to change or improve things.
 
As a kid I was quite popular (probably because I was good at sports) and therefore I didn't really 'feel' socially anxious. Though I would say I didn't have the balls to talk to females I found physically attractive.

I started smoking weed at 15. By age 17/18, social anxiety started to rear its ugly head. It progressively got worse over time and stayed with me for years. It was mentally very stressful and my continuation of smoking weed always made it worse, especially when out and about in my home city of London...I never got medicated for it. I never got help for it.

At 21, I decided to quit weed in July 2015 (my quit only lasted 5-6 months) but I saw improvements in my social anxiety.

At 23/24, I got my first ever job, and I also quit smoking weed for the following 2 years. This was a game changer as I was forced to interact socially with people in person and over the phone. At first it was very daunting, but slowly and slowly, I got used to it.

Today I am 27 and I would say that the social anxiety has a minor impact on my life now (feel it here and there, but compared to before, it doesn't phase me). Back then at age 21, it was having a detrimental effect. Imagine sitting on a tube, and somebody sits directly in front of you, facing you, and they are about 1 meter/3 feet away....You have no idea what to do, where to look etc... (no wonder I have so many grey hairs).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top