Intro
Hello, my name is Drew and I suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder. I am 35 years old and in many ways, have just begun living. For the first 32 years of my life I was in constant fear of just about everything, but it was mainly people, or to be more specific, interaction with people, that I feared the most.
Fear of social situations had been a part of my life as far back as I could remember. I really didn’t know how to act normally around other people. I didn’t know how to interact with others without feeling worthless and weak. I didn’t have the social skills many people take for granted. I didn’t know what it was like to live without this constant feeling of worthlessness around other people. I was a mess and things were not improving as time went on.
I started this website today as a diary of sorts. Much of what I will write about is deeply personal, but this is a deeply personal topic. Needless to say, anonymity is important in this regard. Much of what I will write about will be for my sake, but if other sufferers of social anxiety read this and can gain some sort of comfort from the fact that they are not alone, then that’s great also.
If you are reading this and do not suffer from this condition, it is my hope that it will serve to educate others as to how horrible social anxiety can be. This condition affects 7% of the general population, so it’s very likely that you know people who are suffering at this very moment.
While I do not consider myself cured of SA (social anxiety), I have learned how to cope with it and not allow myself to be controlled by it as I have in the past.
This “blog” will not follow the usual format of daily updates in real time – although sometimes I will write of things in my current situation. Instead, I will be writing of things in my past – when things were much more extreme than they are today.
By the way, I decided to name the site after something that relates very closely to my experiences. Of all the lines I’ve heard over the years, “shy and quiet” has won out as the one most used to describe me as a person. Everyone, from family members to teachers, has consistently used that term to describe me. I don’t like it personally, but I believe it is the most accurate phrase used by society to describe me. It puts things in perspective and is a constant reminder of who I truly am.
