I have had social anxiety my whole life. Therapy with a good therapist helped me.

Practice stop, pause, breathe, calm and repeat until you find the calm that works.

This helps, no matter where you are.

Thanks for sharing your experience. One thing that’s important to remember is that you don’t need anybody to validate you, you’re a whole person and you are good enough without the need to seek approval. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, it’s about you concentrating on healing yourself

I don’t have social anxiety per say, but I do tend to avoid people at times. I’m also in recovery, and one of the things I’m working on is the avoidant behavior. For instance, I walk my dog every day and so do others in my neighborhood. If I see someone walking toward me, I don’t try to avoid, but rather tell myself it’s ok, all I have to do is be myself and be pleasant as we pass each other. If I see someone I know in a store, I remind myself of the same thing, be myself and be pleasant, that’s all I can expect from myself. I’ve found this to be helpful and it breaks the avoidant behavior.

This very post could work as the first step in my own anxiety management. My own social anxiety is fierce enough that I worry about setting up defense strategies, just in case my chickens are gossiping about me. A running inventory of my current symptoms helps me keep whatever psychotherapy tools I need for my current symptom handy to keep those symptoms from escalating. My own lifelong anxiety is fierce enough that I am seldom symptom free. When I let that be okay, those symptoms are far easier to catch and remediate before they take charge of my life.

Of course, there is nothing justy in that process. Some days it is fiercely hard work, but ? ? ? I works with what is available.

Keep venting, Asuncion. Your own answers are in there.

Listening. . .