Our annual Christmas party came complete with a real live Santa. He would make his appearance about midway through the party, toting a bag of gifts for the kids. Santa had a reserved chair where he would take his place and start passing out these toys. Later, he could be seen reading a story to [...]
Avoiding social events is what I do best. After years of experience, I have become an expert at side-stepping any situation that involves interacting with more than three people. I am particularly good at sensing any hint of danger associated with such events. Danger would be any chance, however slim, that I would be centered [...]
In a previous post, I mentioned that I seemed to have two very different personalities, entirely dependant upon location. There was my “at home” personality (I considered this to be the real me), and my public personality.
I felt completely relaxed at home. I was witty, fun to be around, and maybe even admired. There was [...]
Much of my problem stemmed from the fact that I seemed to be too aware of myself and my surroundings. I was hyper-conscious of how I was perceived and how I interacted with others. In fact, so much time was spent analyzing each and every situation that it became tedious, stressful, and laborious to leave [...]
Each person I come into contact with has a rating assigned to them by my sub-conscience. Everyone is rated, regardless of their relationship to me. Family members, friends, people on the street, co-workers, authority figures, salespeople, checkout girls, etc… Everybody gets a rating. Let me explain:
My personality would change, depending on whom I was talking to. The approach I used from person to person varied greatly. The way I talked to my mother was different from the way I talked to my friends, my boss, a police officer, or a romantic interest. I was this whole other person from one [...]
Yes, we all love to evaluate people, even if we don’t admit it. In fact, most of us are probably unaware that we even do it. What is this need to have someone’s number; to have them figured out in our heads? It’s really like some sort of competition, and we’re all looking for chinks [...]
Comparing oneself to others is as natural a human trait as eating, breathing, or sleeping. Most often this obsession to compare our strengths and weaknesses against that of other people is an automatic thing. I do it all the time without even thinking about it.
When I meet a person for the first time, I unconsciously [...]
With each passing day, I find my spirits lifting. While I still have a long way to go with my social anxiety problem, I am finding it easier to relate to others and stand my ground when things are less than ideal. In a way, it’s almost been like the classic “snowball effect”, where things [...]
Over the past few years, I have built a list of exposure tasks that I engage in. I generally perform these according to the emotional state I’m in at the time. However, I always manage to do something each day. For me, that’s critical, because if I let things slide, then I’ll feel like doing [...]