unreasonably anxious

I have social anxiety, so yes. It happens to me all the time.
It's just like you expressed: I feel like people are looking at me, examining me and judging me.
This makes it very hard to go outside. I'm almost always at home, and when I go out it's very hard when I bump into people that I know(I live in a small town). Just looking them in the eyes and saying hello while smiling is hard.

I have to constantly remind myself that most if not all of those people aren't malicious, mean me no harm, and that I have nothing to be afraid of.

PhoenixIgnition said:

I have social anxiety, so yes. It happens to me all the time.
It's just like you expressed: I feel like people are looking at me, examining me and judging me.
This makes it very hard to go outside. I'm almost always at home, and when I go out it's very hard when I bump into people that I know(I live in a small town). Just looking them in the eyes and saying hello while smiling is hard.

I have to constantly remind myself that most if not all of those people aren't malicious, mean me no harm, and that I have nothing to be afraid of.

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yeah, i think this is a part of my anxiety. whilst never strictly diagnosed as social anxiety, i am suffering "mixed anxiety and depression" so it's probably that. but yeah, the other day on pokémon go community day i deliberately avoided my cousins and their friends because i know how uncomfortable bumping into them would have been. it's not like i'm /trying/ to be antisocial, just scared.

RainbowNebula said:

yeah, i think this is a part of my anxiety. whilst never strictly diagnosed as social anxiety, i am suffering "mixed anxiety and depression" so it's probably that. but yeah, the other day on pokémon go community day i deliberately avoided my cousins and their friends because i know how uncomfortable bumping into them would have been. it's not like i'm /trying/ to be antisocial, just scared.

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I relate to what you're describing very much.
The thing my therapist(clinical psychologist) keeps insisting on in regard to anxiety is desensitization, which means to reduce the emotional response to stimulus at the time of exposure to it(I'm half quoting wikipedia here just because english is not my first language, but that's exactly what he described).
It's extremely hard. Like I said, I'm mostly at home so not really doing too well with that, but my advice to anyone would be to keep fighting and try hard to go outside and desensitize to the source of their anxiety.

PhoenixIgnition said:

I relate to what you're describing very much.
The thing my therapist(clinical psychologist) keeps insisting on in regard to anxiety is desensitization, which means to reduce the emotional response to stimulus at the time of exposure to it(I'm half quoting wikipedia here just because english is not my first language, but that's exactly what he described).
It's extremely hard. Like I said, I'm mostly at home so not really doing too well with that, but my advice to anyone would be to keep fighting and try hard to go outside and desensitize to the source of their anxiety.

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it's tough because i know that my responses to such situations are unreasonable and silly, but that alone doesn't stop it from happening. just cause i recognise that a random person on the street doesnt want to hurt me doesn't mean i won't be scared. and then when someone random /does/ shout something at me, abusive, teasing, or none of the above it frightens me. i hate this.

I have social anxiety too, but for me it stems from bad past experiences.
And I generally don't know how to socialize that well so that just makes it worse.

Raven said:

I have social anxiety too, but for me it stems from bad past experiences.
And I generally don't know how to socialize that well so that just makes it worse.

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I don't really know the reason for my social anxiety, but it might be for the same reason(bad past experiences. Perhaps childhood experiences), and I'm also pretty bad at socializing. I think the only people I social kind of decently with are my mother and my tutor.

Were you bullied by chance? That's a major factor in mine.

Raven said:

Were you bullied by chance? That's a major factor in mine.

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I was bullied in elementary school, and a little in junior high. Not anything extreme, but still.
It might be related to it, but the thing is I can't put my finger on it and say with absolute confidence that it's the catalyst.

It would make sense that it'd be a factor, though.

RainbowNebula said:

it's tough because i know that my responses to such situations are unreasonable and silly, but that alone doesn't stop it from happening. just cause i recognise that a random person on the street doesnt want to hurt me doesn't mean i won't be scared. and then when someone random /does/ shout something at me, abusive, teasing, or none of the above it frightens me. i hate this.

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Stay strong my man, I think I know how you feel.

i have general anxiety and social anxiety, i've been diagnosed with both

so yes i can definitely relate. i get anxious over the stupidest things. even when i try to relax, i can't fully relax bc i always have some sort of anxiety there lingering for no reason. it sucks. whenever people are looking at me i think they're judging me. whenever people are laughing i think they're laughing at me. i have the hardest time making friends. (that could be contributed to my possible autism but idk)

anytime i think i've made friends, im always the one contacting them first. trying to make plans. they never do that to me. sucks. it really does. anxiety just sucks in general. presentations are the death of me. i shake a lot and tremble and have to take a million deep breaths before doing one. even performing in front of 6 people is too much for me.

but yeah. anxiety is horrible. i wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I have a generalised anxiety disorder, so basically I constantly feel at least a little anxious and any particularly stressful situation has the potential to send me into a panic. Talking to my psych recently, we worked out that I've probably never had a grounded moment in my life. At any given moment there's always this subtle anxious buzzing and now I'm actually aware of it and can feel it always there. I can distract myself from it, but I as of yet haven't been able to escape it which is something we'll be working on now.

A good distraction is really helpful though, just putting that out there.

I get uncomfortable in crowded spaces.