Do you get anxiety before entering a room with people in it?

[watersprite]

Judge that is cool and is a goal of mine. I avoid many things that I wish I could carry out. I'm great when I'm by myself though. lol

 

[Ellylldan]

Then, you've gotta get off.. we have a red button you press, a big.. huge.. massive RED BUTTON! You're not supposed to press red buttons, they're for emergencies.. well me wanting to get off isn't an emergency, per se; why can't it be a friendly green button, eh?

Haha, Spiller, so many times I asked myself this same question: why the button has to be red?! Why not green? It just makes such a big deal out of very simple thing: getting off the bus...

But the red button is nothing compared to another scary thing.. In Russia there were (and I believe they still exist) small buses doing slightly alternative routes compared to normal buses, they are faster and you have to pay more than for a bus.. Anyway, there were buttons at the exits but they often didn't work and you were supposed to tell yourself to the driver that you want to get off. As there were always crowds, to be heard by the driver you had to yell through all the bus. I called them "buses from hell" and hated them profoundly. I never learned to yell to get off and so I was trying to be or near the driver, so I could ask him to stop when I needed it, or, if I was trapped in the back, I was just hoping that someone else will need to get off at my stop with a risk of getting off at the wrong stop... Oh, disturbing memories..

As for the anxiety before entering a room, yes, I totally have it. I was never late for school, as far as I remember, but when I happened to be late in university, I would just skip the class entirely. I just couldn't bear the thought of everyone staring at me and thinking who knows what.. Even now, years later, my heart starts racing whenever I have to enter a quiet room full of people.

 

[Datura]

Do you think the discomfort around teenagers is because you were bullied at school? I was either taunted or ignored allthrough school, a very isolated and lonely time for me and even now the thought of walking into a secondary school makes me sweat..

I was teased and excluded mercilessly in elementary and junior high. I went to a more open-minded high school where I wasn't taunted, but still had a very hard time approaching people and making friends. In my young adulthood I would also get picked on by teenagers on the street and at bus stops, so my anxiety around that age group is not without president.

 

[Spiller]

my anxiety around that age group is now without president.

You don't know how much I sympathise Datura..
Aspergirl said, up there a bit, that 'Anxiety is the fear of being judged'. I see that working in two ways..
1. Whatever you do, you're judged harshly, till you dare do nothing..
2. You're judged mercilessly (bullied) before hand, to the point where you're constantly confused/anxious and can't do anything..
I think, with time and encouragement you can overcome harsh criticism (I helped an exGF become a confident driver after ten years of comments by her ex, within a few months).. but if you're bullied, especially from a young enough age, that anxiety can become utterly overwhelming and it's extremely difficult to stop it ruling your life! (There was a time, a while ago, that I was hardly able to leave home due to Social phobia/anxiety and I still work on that every day).

 

[armedlove]

This! I always get overly anxious in these situations. Other examples: approaching people if I have to for my job, waiting in line at a fast food place, movies, starbucks, etc.

I do this thing where I picture the scenario of talking and think into too much of what to say and it leads me to stutter or completely freeze in speech..

 

[Suzanne]

I feel much better about it if I am armed with my iPhone and, even better, iPad. Even if I am not using either one, if I begin to feel panicky I can at least look at the screen. In the olden days (before electronic devices) I went everywhere armed with a book and/or notebook. Same system but the electronic version seems a bit more discrete (especially the phone).

That is so me. If I have no choice but to visit the dr, which horribly is coming around again, I make sure my tablet is fully charged and on silence and play a game and this calms me down and I find my tummy stops rumbling.

 

[Explosition_Rooster]

Yes... in a way.

I don't feel anxious at first, but it slowly builds up until I just want to leave and I don't care whose in the way and its... like I want to crawl out of my skin and just hide away from everybody.

Having some music to listen to helps, some, but it doesn't make the feeling go away.

 

[Berianireth]

I feel so anxious before entering rooms and hallways etc that I get lightheaded. Sometimes it's funny and other people will notice me going cuckoo about the crowds and make hilarious faces at me (to see what's going on I guess?).

 

[tree]

A Show & Tell about being an Anxious Person:
Here's An Easy Way To Understand Anxiety - The Meta Picture

At one point in my life I was diagnosed as Creative/Intelligent/Anxious/Depressed.
My reaction to that was Thanks/Yeah/Yeah/What now?

This Show & Tell is a way to get across to other people what it is like to be anxious.
It doesn't offer any insightful methods over-come anxiety.
The suggestion, it seemed to me, was that you should
depend on other people to buoy you up and give you shelter from the storm.

This doesn't seem like a rational approach to me.

 

[Spiller]

This really annoys me:

"If you know it's all in your head then why are you still like this?"

To all intents and purposes the whole world exists inside our heads - data is passed to the brain via our senses and we build a personalised model, our own personal universe, in our minds.
We have no provable idea whether our surroundings are as we perceive them, or we're living a Matrix-style existence, or even in a Great Dream, as I recall reading Australian Aboriginal beliefs would have it.
Even if we think about stuff enough to realise this concept (and I've talked to many people who just couldn't understand the idea of The Matrix), it doesn't help us find a way to prove one theory over another, or easily alter our personal reality to suit ourselves.
The best modern understanding has come up with are various forms of psychotherapy, which require a lot of conscious effort on the part of the Anxiety sufferer to overcome months, years, possibly a lifetime of self- and external conditioning, based both on actual and imagined experience - and again, there, imagined experiences are just as real to our thoughts and emotions as actual ones are, our bodies still respond to imagination/memory as if it were the real thing.. anyone who has not developed the mental discipline to control such thoughts and memories will effectively live a given experience over and over again without even realising it.
It rather surprises me that far more people don't suffer with extreme anxiety and for that quote to suggest that the incredibly difficult feat of overcoming anxiety is easy just highlights the sheer ignorance of many!
<Cough> Erm.. just a thought

 

[TSS]

It could be a classroom, a waiting room at the doctors, a cinema or any room where you know there will be people (doesn't matter how few or many people already in the room).

I sometimes get anxiety when entering a room where I know there will be other people. One example is that I'm late for class and as soon as I open the classroom door - everyone looks up at me. Another example is the waiting room at the doctors as there is always other people in there too - usually coughing and sneezing.

 

[TSS]

Me too!

So i try to be early. Better be early than late.

I get nervous and anxious when I go into or know I am going into a place that will have more than a few people in it.

 

[Omega]

I definitely have this problem but what bothers me is it's worse if I think people I know are there and I have to talk.

 

[TSS]

I would have to say yes to that.

 

[Tom]

Oh yes. It's sometimes like forcing yourself to jump into cold water for me.

 

[Sully]

Oh yes. It's sometimes like forcing yourself to jump into cold water for me.

Same for me. Sometimes I'll grab the door handle, take a deep breath, and tense up my whole body as if bracing myself to take a punch to the stomach then enter the room.

 

[Tom]

Same for me. Sometimes I'll grab the door handle, take a deep breath, and tense up my whole body as if bracing myself to take a punch to the stomach then enter the room.

I know that feeling. And its not like its zombies in there going to eat you... its worse... they are going to all look at you at the same time!

 

[tree]

Fear of confrontation - SocialPhobiaWorld.com

Their slogan is: You Are Not Alone.

I know, "you are not alone" is supposed to be comforting, but they could hardly have picked a more ironic slogan.

 

[watersprite]

Fear of confrontation - SocialPhobiaWorld.com

Their slogan is: You Are Not Alone.

I know, "you are not alone" is supposed to be comforting, but they could hardly have picked a more ironic slogan.

Gosh. They should hire someone more skilled to do their writing - many people here who I think could. It's too serious of an issue for me, otherwise this slogan would be amusing.

 

[watersprite]

I just broke my own rule. I went to a large hardware and lumber store with no script written in advance. Stumbled over my words, thoughts went blank, and I could not get across the information I needed to impart. I managed to order the materials I need, I think. My mind will replay all of it verbatim at 3:15a.m.