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	<title>Comments on: I have social anxiety disorder - who knew?</title>
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	<description>Social Anxiety Disorder And Everyday Life</description>
	<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:27:02 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>By: Shyness and Social Anxiety Web Links &#171; Shyinscotland&#8217;s Weblog</title>
		<link>http://shyandquiet.com/2007/01/04/i-have-social-anxiety-disorder-who-knew/#comment-24780</link>
		<dc:creator>Shyness and Social Anxiety Web Links &#171; Shyinscotland&#8217;s Weblog</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:29:32 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>By: mabel gonzalez alvarez</title>
		<link>http://shyandquiet.com/2007/01/04/i-have-social-anxiety-disorder-who-knew/#comment-5656</link>
		<dc:creator>mabel gonzalez alvarez</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:02:38 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>Hey there Drew! I'm Mabel...I'm 17 ..and boy have I got advice for you! We are sooo much alike! Yet I feel like you're probably lsoing sight of the big picture, though you may honestly think you can see it pretty well now. I know exactly how you feel and in high school I've only been friends with "safe people" but b/c I am really friendly..I was not born not being able to make eye contact and/or smile upon that since elementary school unlike you (I'm sorry about that), but now I'm starting to feel overwhelmed as this whole issue is def. starting to kick in! I've lost my ability to make steady eye contact..and if I try my mind "leaves" my body so to speak, and you can tell the other person knows I have left ;-). Honey, I've gotten by to the point I am now b/c of my constant effort to keep my sense of humor alive. I've never lost it! I love my sense of humor and will cherish it and nurture it always. I think you should try to integrate yours into everything you do, too. (I can definitely see you have one) It'll ..surprisingly.. put things in perspective for you! Life isn't meant to be that serious. I believe it really isn't. There must be something you're thinking about too hard when it feels so heavy..especially when you know it all started in your mind!

Kay, so here's my advice. You should first of all be completely sure that you are not holding back whatsoever when talking online..you should try to go back and edit as little as possible. It doesn't matter if the idea you just wrote down "sounded" stupid, it was just written by you and you are wonderful as a rule so don't second-guess that quality! You thought it up, it is great. As it is. It needs no stringent imposing on of rules of perfection. No more. You are to leave it alone and to hell with how people may (or may not) react. You should practice this first of all online, k? It's much easier to see how you're trying to "edit" and "re-edit" yourself in this respect. 

Ok, so now I believe I will let you in on the secret to your success, you, Drew, who are oh so similar to me. Ready? K. Before you even worry about any of your social anxiety issues or anything that deals with 'worry and other people' in the same sentence at all, you need self-esteem. Yes, read that again. That was your mind just know saying "Yeah, self-esteem. I know, I know." But read it again! There's something you've been missing. You need to develop self-esteem before you can be ready to show people the true and awesome Drew! (that does rhyme, yep:]) You KNOW that you need to appreciate yourself competely before you can expect others to...b/c like you said most ppl don't take the time to stop for a sec and wonder if there's more to you than your quiet exterior. . . so that's right..how &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; they appreciate you? They can't see you!

This is how you can appreciate yourself for ALL that you are: Do the things you feel good about and know you are good at. Invest some time in &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt;. THat sounds totally cheesy, but it's so true. ow much time have you spent wokring on your future in your career? Your future to buy yourself a home, a pet, and all the niceties? Does that sound like a loser to you? Someone who was able to persevere so far as to get themselves their own place and to have all their own stuff? Cool! Independence! Investing your time in self-pity isn't investing time in &lt;i&gt;you&lt;/i&gt; it's investing time in thinking over and over and over again about what you know you will never be and what you will never get right even if you tried. Look at the future and make your own, independent decisions. Trust yourself! You're totally capable!...DUH!. Hehe =] ..Look down at the floor, make no eye contact, stutter your words, blush as much as you want, who cares? Make it as awkward as possible, honestly, that person isn't going to remember by tomorrow. Just TALK and get your message across. You have to make an effort, Drew! Move past your fear! Don't wait for it to go away by itself...Move past and THROUGH! Courage means taking action when afraid, have Courage! You know you have it! Just do it ;) ;) It's ok, once you've done it you will feel so much better...b/c you DID IT! omg, you just did it! you went past your fear. Thought you were terrified, you acted anyway, even if you were too paralyzed to even call it an action, you MOVED! you said something! OMG! =) lol. It doesn't matter. The first step for you is to realize that people don't matter as long as you're investing time in what is going to be BEST FOR YOU. Take responsiblity and respect your actions (have trust in yourself that this is the best action for you!) and others will reply accordingly. But for now..forget about everybody....focus on your career and your knowledge, your wisdom, your maturity, and ability to trust yourself and commit yourself without looking back. Once you persevere, you will see how capable you really are and you will appreciate and respect yourself &lt;i&gt;so&lt;/i&gt; Much!

Just gonna repeat a little of what I was saying..I wanted to go on about self-pity. Drew, I think, you should honestly stop reading things and listening to things that will make you feel inferiour, things you know other people don't read! This will only make feel weaker and more in need of help, and less able to help yourself! Also focusing so much on the vey same subjects that are already destroying your mind will only destroy it more! because then there will be no other thoughts in ur mind but those things you just read and are pitying yourself about and trying not to notice. The less you think about noticing the more you will notice! Use your ability to see miniscule details to see what other people aren't so good at and that you &lt;b&gt;really&lt;/b&gt; are good at! And show them. Not by literally showing them, but by showing yourself and in that way showing them (b/c now you're confident you can). You know this, but I'm gonna re-say it, You first have to show yourself! ..Because you're the one who currently doesn't believe it remember? You ain't just gotta see it to believe it, you've gotta &lt;i&gt;feel&lt;/i&gt; it, too. Focus on doing things for your realistic advancement (things you know are tangible and accessible through hard, steady work)---forget about everybody else--They'll be left behind in the mud b/c they lack your &lt;b&gt;motivation&lt;/b&gt;! You are now a true survior and you will storm through anything! Something they can't do. The universe is truly trying to get you out of all this craziness, you just have to respect yourself first and foremost. Do what you gotta do first and foremost and don't worry what "they'll" think of you b/c by the time you get to actually worrying you'll already be far above and ahead of them all. Honestly. Then you'll see all their insecurities as clear as day and you'' see the vulnerable, scared child in them, and act accordingly. (put them in their place b/c they are trying to sabotage you..if they didn't try to then don't take advantage, remember you were once that way, too, have utmost compassion!) ..They are no longer even your equals at this point. They are your students!---There to learn from your wisdom and extreme abundance (overflowing!) of life experience. You've overcome MAJOR obstacles! You've GROWN and CHANGED so much than them! You are now so much more powerful and even better you are not totally aware of this power...and can now use it as you like. Soon enough, when they're feeling down, they'll be the ones to come to you. And you will be there to guide them to true self-confidence. Remember that when it's all said and done, your self-confidence will be completely shatter-proof while theirs will always still be closer to 'vulnerable human'. 

If and When somebody tries to bully, you will now be able to see past their efforst to try to feel superior to you and b/c your ego no longer gona be tipping off-ballance to and for, you will be able to see it form an obective, rationable point of view and will be able to firmly PULL them back into the reality of the matter (that they AREn't superior to you and that there's no way they're even gonna try that, no chance, and that you know exactly where you stand). They're trying to make fun of you b/c inside this is their deepest fear; That that situation you were in just now could ever happen to them one day. That's their greatest fear and at that moment you can see it! Did you know that the purpose of humor is to release the tension of the most serious matters about you and/or society which are stored deeply in your subconscious? Jokes about the most serious of things are usually the funniest...that's why the meanest and most gruesome ones are usually the preffered dish. Now that you are very sure of yourself, your eye for detail is reversed from being completely absorbed in your personal matters, to being completely on the external world where things HAPPen and reality eXISts! Where it should be! ..so that you can be IN the moment. 

Aftger you become confident you will be able to take the following advice: Yo need to let go, LET GO! be yourself comepltely w/o giving a damn about anyone else who might give a hoot about it. The mostessential thing to remmeber is this: You need to have developed your confidence first in order to be able to follow through with the previously mentioned (!!). Because if not you will only be &lt;i&gt;telling&lt;/i&gt; yourself that you don't care what they "they" think. After you've spent time with all of the amazingness that is youand your abilities, you won't ever revert to the old way, b/c those people (like bullies) will only be trash to you! And who cares what opinions absolute &lt;b&gt;trash&lt;/b&gt; might just have?? Who cares?? =] 
..I leave you with that thought. Good night.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hey there Drew! I&#8217;m Mabel&#8230;I&#8217;m 17 ..and boy have I got advice for you! We are sooo much alike! Yet I feel like you&#8217;re probably lsoing sight of the big picture, though you may honestly think you can see it pretty well now. I know exactly how you feel and in high school I&#8217;ve only been friends with &#8220;safe people&#8221; but b/c I am really friendly..I was not born not being able to make eye contact and/or smile upon that since elementary school unlike you (I&#8217;m sorry about that), but now I&#8217;m starting to feel overwhelmed as this whole issue is def. starting to kick in! I&#8217;ve lost my ability to make steady eye contact..and if I try my mind &#8220;leaves&#8221; my body so to speak, and you can tell the other person knows I have left ;-). Honey, I&#8217;ve gotten by to the point I am now b/c of my constant effort to keep my sense of humor alive. I&#8217;ve never lost it! I love my sense of humor and will cherish it and nurture it always. I think you should try to integrate yours into everything you do, too. (I can definitely see you have one) It&#8217;ll ..surprisingly.. put things in perspective for you! Life isn&#8217;t meant to be that serious. I believe it really isn&#8217;t. There must be something you&#8217;re thinking about too hard when it feels so heavy..especially when you know it all started in your mind!</p>
<p>Kay, so here&#8217;s my advice. You should first of all be completely sure that you are not holding back whatsoever when talking online..you should try to go back and edit as little as possible. It doesn&#8217;t matter if the idea you just wrote down &#8220;sounded&#8221; stupid, it was just written by you and you are wonderful as a rule so don&#8217;t second-guess that quality! You thought it up, it is great. As it is. It needs no stringent imposing on of rules of perfection. No more. You are to leave it alone and to hell with how people may (or may not) react. You should practice this first of all online, k? It&#8217;s much easier to see how you&#8217;re trying to &#8220;edit&#8221; and &#8220;re-edit&#8221; yourself in this respect. </p>
<p>Ok, so now I believe I will let you in on the secret to your success, you, Drew, who are oh so similar to me. Ready? K. Before you even worry about any of your social anxiety issues or anything that deals with &#8216;worry and other people&#8217; in the same sentence at all, you need self-esteem. Yes, read that again. That was your mind just know saying &#8220;Yeah, self-esteem. I know, I know.&#8221; But read it again! There&#8217;s something you&#8217;ve been missing. You need to develop self-esteem before you can be ready to show people the true and awesome Drew! (that does rhyme, yep:]) You KNOW that you need to appreciate yourself competely before you can expect others to&#8230;b/c like you said most ppl don&#8217;t take the time to stop for a sec and wonder if there&#8217;s more to you than your quiet exterior. . . so that&#8217;s right..how <i>can</i> they appreciate you? They can&#8217;t see you!</p>
<p>This is how you can appreciate yourself for ALL that you are: Do the things you feel good about and know you are good at. Invest some time in <i>you</i>. THat sounds totally cheesy, but it&#8217;s so true. ow much time have you spent wokring on your future in your career? Your future to buy yourself a home, a pet, and all the niceties? Does that sound like a loser to you? Someone who was able to persevere so far as to get themselves their own place and to have all their own stuff? Cool! Independence! Investing your time in self-pity isn&#8217;t investing time in <i>you</i> it&#8217;s investing time in thinking over and over and over again about what you know you will never be and what you will never get right even if you tried. Look at the future and make your own, independent decisions. Trust yourself! You&#8217;re totally capable!&#8230;DUH!. Hehe =] ..Look down at the floor, make no eye contact, stutter your words, blush as much as you want, who cares? Make it as awkward as possible, honestly, that person isn&#8217;t going to remember by tomorrow. Just TALK and get your message across. You have to make an effort, Drew! Move past your fear! Don&#8217;t wait for it to go away by itself&#8230;Move past and THROUGH! Courage means taking action when afraid, have Courage! You know you have it! Just do it <img src='http://shyandquiet.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> ;) It&#8217;s ok, once you&#8217;ve done it you will feel so much better&#8230;b/c you DID IT! omg, you just did it! you went past your fear. Thought you were terrified, you acted anyway, even if you were too paralyzed to even call it an action, you MOVED! you said something! OMG! =) lol. It doesn&#8217;t matter. The first step for you is to realize that people don&#8217;t matter as long as you&#8217;re investing time in what is going to be BEST FOR YOU. Take responsiblity and respect your actions (have trust in yourself that this is the best action for you!) and others will reply accordingly. But for now..forget about everybody&#8230;.focus on your career and your knowledge, your wisdom, your maturity, and ability to trust yourself and commit yourself without looking back. Once you persevere, you will see how capable you really are and you will appreciate and respect yourself <i>so</i> Much!</p>
<p>Just gonna repeat a little of what I was saying..I wanted to go on about self-pity. Drew, I think, you should honestly stop reading things and listening to things that will make you feel inferiour, things you know other people don&#8217;t read! This will only make feel weaker and more in need of help, and less able to help yourself! Also focusing so much on the vey same subjects that are already destroying your mind will only destroy it more! because then there will be no other thoughts in ur mind but those things you just read and are pitying yourself about and trying not to notice. The less you think about noticing the more you will notice! Use your ability to see miniscule details to see what other people aren&#8217;t so good at and that you <b>really</b> are good at! And show them. Not by literally showing them, but by showing yourself and in that way showing them (b/c now you&#8217;re confident you can). You know this, but I&#8217;m gonna re-say it, You first have to show yourself! ..Because you&#8217;re the one who currently doesn&#8217;t believe it remember? You ain&#8217;t just gotta see it to believe it, you&#8217;ve gotta <i>feel</i> it, too. Focus on doing things for your realistic advancement (things you know are tangible and accessible through hard, steady work)&#8212;forget about everybody else&#8211;They&#8217;ll be left behind in the mud b/c they lack your <b>motivation</b>! You are now a true survior and you will storm through anything! Something they can&#8217;t do. The universe is truly trying to get you out of all this craziness, you just have to respect yourself first and foremost. Do what you gotta do first and foremost and don&#8217;t worry what &#8220;they&#8217;ll&#8221; think of you b/c by the time you get to actually worrying you&#8217;ll already be far above and ahead of them all. Honestly. Then you&#8217;ll see all their insecurities as clear as day and you&#8221; see the vulnerable, scared child in them, and act accordingly. (put them in their place b/c they are trying to sabotage you..if they didn&#8217;t try to then don&#8217;t take advantage, remember you were once that way, too, have utmost compassion!) ..They are no longer even your equals at this point. They are your students!&#8212;There to learn from your wisdom and extreme abundance (overflowing!) of life experience. You&#8217;ve overcome MAJOR obstacles! You&#8217;ve GROWN and CHANGED so much than them! You are now so much more powerful and even better you are not totally aware of this power&#8230;and can now use it as you like. Soon enough, when they&#8217;re feeling down, they&#8217;ll be the ones to come to you. And you will be there to guide them to true self-confidence. Remember that when it&#8217;s all said and done, your self-confidence will be completely shatter-proof while theirs will always still be closer to &#8216;vulnerable human&#8217;. </p>
<p>If and When somebody tries to bully, you will now be able to see past their efforst to try to feel superior to you and b/c your ego no longer gona be tipping off-ballance to and for, you will be able to see it form an obective, rationable point of view and will be able to firmly PULL them back into the reality of the matter (that they AREn&#8217;t superior to you and that there&#8217;s no way they&#8217;re even gonna try that, no chance, and that you know exactly where you stand). They&#8217;re trying to make fun of you b/c inside this is their deepest fear; That that situation you were in just now could ever happen to them one day. That&#8217;s their greatest fear and at that moment you can see it! Did you know that the purpose of humor is to release the tension of the most serious matters about you and/or society which are stored deeply in your subconscious? Jokes about the most serious of things are usually the funniest&#8230;that&#8217;s why the meanest and most gruesome ones are usually the preffered dish. Now that you are very sure of yourself, your eye for detail is reversed from being completely absorbed in your personal matters, to being completely on the external world where things HAPPen and reality eXISts! Where it should be! ..so that you can be IN the moment. </p>
<p>Aftger you become confident you will be able to take the following advice: Yo need to let go, LET GO! be yourself comepltely w/o giving a damn about anyone else who might give a hoot about it. The mostessential thing to remmeber is this: You need to have developed your confidence first in order to be able to follow through with the previously mentioned (!!). Because if not you will only be <i>telling</i> yourself that you don&#8217;t care what they &#8220;they&#8221; think. After you&#8217;ve spent time with all of the amazingness that is youand your abilities, you won&#8217;t ever revert to the old way, b/c those people (like bullies) will only be trash to you! And who cares what opinions absolute <b>trash</b> might just have?? Who cares?? =]<br />
..I leave you with that thought. Good night.</p>
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