Zoom meetings have actually helped my social anxiety a lot. Being asked to speak in a staff meeting used to turn me red with embarrassment and stammering. I've been contributing a lot more in zoom meetings, taking the lead in some discussions, etc.
Socializing with people in person is still mostly a complete disaster for me. I always used to reach for booze in an attempt to get over it, but it never worked. My experience in my 20s was that I'd just keep drinking in the hopes that I'd get over the anxiety hump, but I'd never really lose any inhibition until maybe 10 minutes before I needed to find a bathroom floor to pass out on.
― peace, man, Friday, 16 April 2021 19:22 (three years ago) link
So has getting older helped at all?
― tobo73, Friday, 16 April 2021 19:46 (three years ago) link
I somehow have developed into a decent public speaker. I credit all the sports talk/baseball games radio I listen to teaching me about pacing and filler words and how to pause without totally freaking out... idk maybe getting older is a part of it? Glad to hear it’s gotten better for you too, peace, man
― brimstead, Friday, 16 April 2021 19:59 (three years ago) link
I usually can't decide if its more social anxiety or just social aversion for me. Is there a difference?
― | (Latham Green), Friday, 16 April 2021 20:08 (three years ago) link
I’ve had to do a ton more public speaking and presenting in the last year and I feel it’s definitely a skill that you can improve at just by practicing and doing it over and over.
― calstars, Friday, 16 April 2021 20:17 (three years ago) link
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Friday, 16 April 2021 20:20 (three years ago) link
a lot of in-person anxiety results from felt inadequacy in the body,
Interesting thought!
Not much. I'm better at socializing sometimes, but mostly not. Social situations for me these days are rare and pretty much amount to talking to other kids' parents.
― peace, man, Friday, 16 April 2021 20:58 (three years ago) link
I mean, I don't fall asleep on the bathroom floor anymore.
― peace, man, Friday, 16 April 2021 20:59 (three years ago) link
I never use alcohol for social anxiety but seeing as how everyone else seems to I think maybe I should. It is the big legal sedative everyone uses all the time yet does not seem to see as similar to other powerful drugs
― | (Latham Green), Sunday, 18 April 2021 11:31 (three years ago) link
less fun, worse withdrawal. if you're not dependent on it yet keep it that way
the social lubricant thing has always had disappointing results for me- there's less anxiety but i'm still unable to participate in a normal conversation. combining it w (prescription) amphetamines is the only way to get me to talk & then the alcohol is more or less beside the point. wouldn't need any of that shit if i could actually relate to more than like 5 ppl who are never in the same room/city/country (so much of what i thought was lifelong social anxiety is just being surrounded by ppl i can't trust w anything i care about)
zoom is even worse than irl for me but if i'd been using it all year i might feel differently
― searching for my black dope yes I am (Left), Sunday, 18 April 2021 12:14 (three years ago) link
maybe sugar is the true social ubricant
― | (Latham Green), Tuesday, 20 July 2021 17:22 (two years ago) link
Yeast. A spoonful of marmite would do the job.
― chap, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 17:26 (two years ago) link
Ice cream works as a social lubricant imo
― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 17:26 (two years ago) link
we're talking about ubricants, not lubricants
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 20 July 2021 17:54 (two years ago) link
"Lubricate My Life"
― | (Latham Green), Monday, 18 October 2021 13:13 (two years ago) link