thx gina

To be honest...even my stoner friends on Marijuana have this problem. Let's not unnecessarily isolate ourselves......there are a few quiet people sitting in the corners of bars and pubs too that are sane

well i know what you mean Gina but i too don't appreciate or need the mania or drama, i honestly don't miss those......

but i do miss people like my grandfather who were fun to spend time around even when we didn't talk. i guess i'm just picky.
i do have an over-all general and true love for my fellow human being, and i think what i don't like generally has more to do with learned boring-ness then the true core of the individual in most cases.

i also don't think being alive HAS to be flat and cookie cutter. that isn't living or life to me.
i do think the majority of people are cut off from their creative side and authenticity and that they parrot ( of course i do it to ) what is deemed acceptable behavior when in fact it is suppression of the spontaneous life inside of them which is truly occurring.

just my downer take.

i do like quiet people by the way. it's fine not to say anything at all, i really don't mind that... i like to be quite a lot too.

and i don't hate all people, i just get bored. i live in a small town anyway, and i find that these terrible gripey feelings i've expressed usually disappear when i leave this place.

i'm sure it is me and where i'm at, and not people as a whole who are at fault.

the town i live in is very small and not incredibly diverse. maybe even kind of backwards ( ? ) and i am just grumbling.

i don't despise consistency or normality or just being. that's not it. i think i'm just feeling stuck where i'm at. when i get out of here, i don't feel this way - even just 45 min. away from here i feel sunny.
my bad for rumble-rant.

* violins *

i'm grumbling and i just hogged a thread, quick ! someone give me a xanax and a spanking ! ooh ooh and a rum and coke, and and..

Sometimes taking benzoes for a long time can actually have the opposite effect and increase your anxiety. If your pdoc doesn't think this is the case, you might switch to something longer-acting, like klonapin.

Oh my God do I agree with Nala!!! People bore the shit out of me with their small talk and all. I don't do small talk...yak, yak, yak,

I try and think of something weird about each person that makes me laugh inside...like a joke only I know the punch line to. Then I try and spend just a little time with someone and if I start to panic...I move on.

I also take Valium PRN. Forgot to add that tasty tid bit of info.

I have BP and generalized anxiety disorder, a bit of a different beast. But i only take xanax when the panic is overwhelming, other than that I use CBT. But when both are biting the dust, I find mindfulness meditation slows me down and grounds me. Try out CDs and exercises by Jon Cabot-Zinn, the guru of mindfulness meditation. They are well worth the money!

I just continue to happily toss pill after pill down my gullet until I'm too sedated to feel anxiety!!!!!

Nah, not really.

But is that what you're anxious about? Someone knowing you're Bipolar?

I've suffered from Social Anxiety since a long,long time before I became Bipolar!!

I thought that Social Anxiety was more or less feeling anxious in social situations, but without any other specific cause.

One thing that helps me immensely is that I have trained myself to not show my anxiety.
I may be screaming on the inside, but I look quite relaxed on the outside.

This is helpful to me because having people see that I'm very anxious makes me 10 times more anxious than I was in the first place!!!!
If I feel like no one knows I'm anxious, it's nowhere near as bad.

Think up generic things to say ahead of time. Complimenting someone is always a good ice-breaker.
Ask people about themselves and be a good listener.

If you can genuinely get interested in others, you stop focusing on yourself, which usually helps greatly in reducing your anxiety!!!

But I don't know if that would work for you. I hear people here say that they found people boring.
I find everyone else intensely interesting.

For a more 'treatment' kind of trick to try is to keep checking your breathing and if you find that your breathing is shallow and rapid (which is how mine gets when I'm very anxious), consciously make yourself breathe normally.

(Or is that part of CBT? I've never had it, so I don't know what it consists of.)

Good luck!!! I hope you find a way that helps you to not have high anxiety when you know you'll be in a social setting!!!

(((((Hugs)))))

good point about addictiveness Richard, yikes

You are so right, Richard! The stupidity we call "social interaction" boggles my mind and would make most people pop benzos. I guess that is why i am a bit of a lone wolf. At least that way, I can be alone with my thoughts when I want.

Thank you all for your encouraging words. I really appreciate it.