Hello everyone!
I just amazed that I found so many people that have the same problem I do. I've had social anxiety disorder for about 5 years now. It never was a problem in high school. I played sports and talked to many different people. I have always been a quiet person though. I have a really intense fear of public speaking. It kept me from continuing my education after high school. I get really nervous around people, especially opposite sex. I have stop talking to my friends and when they call I am afraid to answer the phone. I have just started paxil about 2 months ago. I have started back school and doing better in social situations, but I still have anxiety. When I'm going to class being around all the people I get shortness of breath and feel like everyone is looking at me. Basically the only time I leave home is to go to the gym and go to school. Is there any other meds that I can take to help? I am on 25 mg of paxil cr right now. It has also made me gain 20 pounds. I feel that is helping some but not enough. Its funny because I want to have a social life but not having one really isn't bothering me. The only thing I am focused on is school and working out.
I dont know the paxil CR dose range but unless low it should have started helping by now, occasionally paxil simply doesnt work, discuss with doc.
a possibility is to do an overnight swap to any other prozac type med and hope for better things
any valium type med and a beta blocker med taken as needed will help a lot and these go well with paxil or any other antidepressant
there are several good books on how to overcome social anxiety, get some and study them
a fear of people looking at you is common, it sometimes helps to get out and do things in a town or area where you arent known and need not return to
I hope you can find a CBT group to join as I think it would help you a lot. It helped me a lot to learn the tools with others going through similar stuff I was struggling with and helped build my self confidence up
__________________
Don't expect anyone to help you, if you won't help yourself!
Yes please definately let me know how it goes. I hear it is so bad coming off of Paxil that I am almost afraid to stop taking it. Also afraid that nothing else will work for me like Paxil. I guess I need to go talk to my doc
I have suffered from panic attacks and anxiety since my high school days. I barely got through highschool, I quit 3 times, and then my senior year I had to do the home school. Its amazing that I married, it really is! But after my marriage I became pregnant and had my son, then my disorder got so bad, that it turned in agoraphobia. I couldn't go outside and check my mail box, answer the door, and the grocery store was just plan awful. My husband eventually took over the shopping, and practically everything else that involved dealing with the public. It was so bad that I literally could not seek medical help for 2 years. I couldn't imagine that there was a disorder that was causing me to act so crazy, I thought I was just losing my mind and would end up in a mental hospital. Finally when I began thinking of ways to kill myself to end the suffering I sought out a doctor. Imagine that I got an appointment with a doctor that suffered from anxiety as well, he was very sympathetic and understood why I couldn't look him in the eye, etc. He put me on Zoloft, which didn't work to well at first, but then he would up the dose, and then up the dose again, and I was on 150 mg. a day and buspar. What I life saver, literally! I was able to go out in public, without feeling I was dieing from a heart attack. Driving, eating in public, visiting friends and family, and got a job. I was like a new person! And so happy! I felt normal for the first time in years. But for me, there are side effects to being on a high dose, such as irritability, lose of appetite, and it will make you feel tired, not doped up, but fatigued. These side effects really bother me now, and I am going to go back to the doc and ask him about possible ways of getting rid of the fatigue. Well I've wrote a book! I hope I've helped, even if just a little. Best wishes to you.
I am on Paxil now. I have put on about 10 pounds since taking Paxil.
I have been on Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, and one other.
Nothing has really helped.
I can work I guess. But I got fired, so it is hard to work.
My lack of a social life did not bother me when I was in school or in college either.
I just spent 100% of my time on studying.
But after school things just keep on getting worse and worse for me.
I have failed at everything I have tried to do after school
This includes the military, and working with my family and working in a job that uses my degree.
I feel more and more lonely as time goes on, and see less and less of a point to living.
I will never have a friend in my life let alone a girlfriend or a wife.
I will never have a family.
And I will never get any farther or have any achievements in a job that are any greater then what I have already done.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that a lot more people should have been concerned about my social anxiety when I was younger.
I guess I thought that things would get better and work out some day if I just keep on trying hard in school and doing the best that I could.
But I was wrong, and things will never work out for me.
So my only advice is do a lot of social things and push yourself into and through all the unpleasant social situations now. They might NEVER be pleasant for. You might NEVER learn to like social situation.
But I think you need them and you need to experience them anyway.
It does not matter if you like them or not. You need to grow socially, or you might end up like me and find some day that you have no options left in life.
