My Social Anxiety (part 1)
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
This is my introduction video to my Social Anxiety vlog. I have had Social Anxiety my whole life. Anxiety runs in my family so most of my anxiety is biological. I watched a few other YouTube vlogs of people with Social Anxiety and it inspired me to make my own. My Anxiety was about 3/10 when making this video. The symptoms of my panic attacks include: dry mouth, blushing, shaky hands/legs, rapid heart beat, rapid swallowing, eye watering, butterflies in stomach, sweating. Of course when all this is going on it makes it difficult to carry on a conversation, or even make eye contact. It’s a very panicky feeling and I instinctively search for a way to get out of the situation. At the time of making this video, I had just failed out my first semester as a sophomore in college. The anxiety got too high for me to handle. This is when I decided I needed to start a recovery plan. I found a therapist to talk to, but I had a lot of difficulty speaking because of the high levels of anxiety I had during the appointments. So YouTube was a way I could express myself better and still face my anxiety at the same time.
Duration : 0:9:58

By Dr. Richards, director of Social Anxiety Institute