Do I have symptoms of social phobia? Enough to need to seek therapy?
Over the past year, I’m always reluctant to go out, I don’t really keep in touch with many friends anymore and never go out to meet new people. Everytime I get introduced I just shy away and don’t say much. I don’t approach women or talk to them at all due to the fear of being rejected or simply don’t have much to say to them. I started a new job as sales for 2 weeks which requires me to talk to customers but each time I call I get extremely nervous, my hands shake and my heart beats really hard/fast. I’m left with chest pains all day and have a stomach ache each time I call customers, and I dread going to work because I dont’ want to cold call or talk to customers. I want to quit my job. I’m only talkative with my close friends but whenever I talk to new people, i.e interviews or social, I always stumble when I talk and get nervous. Do I have a social phobia/anxiety? What can I do? I seriously don’t want to go to my job anymore.
It sounds like you could be suffering with a bit of social phobia.Maybe there could also be a bit of panic attacks amongst what you have describe.Please make your self go to your job.If you speak to a Doctor they will be able to diagnose your anxiety and prescribe medications for it.Please seek help and talk about your feelings.
February 12th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Yes it does sound like you have issues in social situations. It could be down to self confidence or self image, or a pattern of behaviour you learnt when you were young.
I think it would be a very good idea to seek help because through talking about the way you deal with and react to things, a counsellor or therapist may be able to help you indentify places where you can make a change in order to break the pattern.
Something you can do yourself is try to understand WHY you feel this way, is it something in the past, is it something now? That way you can try to reassure yourself that everything will be okay, sort of like feeling fear, but not letting it take over.
I wish you the best of luck!
References :
I am very similar but proving!
February 12th, 2010 at 7:47 am
It sounds like you could be suffering with a bit of social phobia.Maybe there could also be a bit of panic attacks amongst what you have describe.Please make your self go to your job.If you speak to a Doctor they will be able to diagnose your anxiety and prescribe medications for it.Please seek help and talk about your feelings.
References :
February 12th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Raher than going down the therapy path, you could try working on yourself to break this destructive behaviour.
You need to learn how to build and access more positive/confident states.
I have provided a link to an article containing a number of exercises you should try.
References :
http://www.planetnlp.com/nlp_howdoi_confidence.html