# Things you have done despite your anxiety



## Reecedouglas1 (Oct 10, 2019)

What have you managed to do despite your anxiety

I would say 

Given many presentations in front of people.


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## Myosr (Apr 8, 2016)

Everything and nothing.


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

Leading group discussions. Voice acting. Initiating social things. Organizing people in several ways.


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## Starcut83 (Feb 13, 2021)

I've been reciting roughly 5 minute long and very personal poetry/rapping over the phone to a group of about 15 people, most of whom I don't know very well yet, for about twice a week for the last month.


The nerves and anxiety I feel are much more intense compared to anything I feel in the average social situation. My hands start shaking and it's hard to catch my breath at first but I intentionally slow down inside a bit and take brief moments to steady my breathing while reading and it eventually settles down about halfway through on it's own. 



It's showing me I can do so much more than I ever thought I could. That nerves/anxiety won't kill me. They always pass with a little time if I let them be, instead of trying to fight them and get rid of them. That if it's a new situation there will always be anxiety to some degree and to be okay with it realizing once I'm in the actual situation it's pretty much never as bad as I Imagined in my mind and many times something I would of never expected and would never of known I was missing out on something great.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

Well, I worked fulltime with the public for 13 years in retail. But it destroyed my health and I will literally [redacted] before I go back to that kind of environment. Not sure I'd call that a "triumph" since it did absolutely nothing to reduce my anxiety.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

Looking back, I am surprised of the traveling I did. If my current self were to go back in time right now, I am unlikely to have the courage to do that again. People grow as they get older, I guess I am backwards.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

I worked front counter and drive thru at a very busy fast food place for about 5 years (they always stuck me on the schedule on the busiest shifts). 

I had surprisingly few serious problems but I had surprisingly few issues with customers who couldn't be placated with an apology and/or an acknowledgement of the problems (long waits and so forth). I did have a couple of incidents where people really went off on me and I did not deal with those well at all. 

I also had issues sometimes with taking a lot of orders and having a bunch of people waiting to have their orders filled. The whole lobby would be full and there would be 2 registers open and you'd have to take like 5 orders and then stop and try to run and fill them all yourself (This place was always understaffed at the busy times and it never got any better). 

I was really bad at this too. I was good at taking orders but pretty horrible at filling them. I never got any better at that no matter how many times I did it. I was still just as bad at it on my last day as I was a month after I started working there.


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## harrison (Apr 14, 2012)

Blue Dino said:


> Looking back, I am surprised of the traveling I did. If my current self were to go back in time right now, I am unlikely to have the courage to do that again. People grow as they get older, I guess I am backwards.


I know for a fact that some aspects of my anxiety are probably worse now than when I was younger - I think some things just change.

When it comes to travelling - I've had times when I just stayed in my room for a day or two. That happened in Thailand actually. Also happened lots of times in Indonesia. But then there were other times when I met people in restaurants or bars, met up with people I'd met online etc etc. It's weird.

Even now I have days when my anxiety is much, much worse - and others when I can just seem to do what I want. I don't think I even understand it anymore. Some of it might have to do with my moods though as well.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

harrison said:


> When it comes to travelling - I've had times when I just stayed in my room for a day or two. That happened in Thailand actually. Also happened lots of times in Indonesia. But then there were other times when I met people in restaurants or bars, met up with people I'd met online etc etc. It's weird.
> 
> Even now I have days when my anxiety is much, much worse - and others when I can just seem to do what I want. I don't think I even understand it anymore. Some of it might have to do with my moods though as well.


That actually sounds nice to do so. Probably because you needed the recharge which is completely normal. If it's relaxing for you to do so, that itself counts as a vacation. I probably would've love to stay in a hotel/motel room for a day too here and there if it's a long travel (which wouldn't happen for me however). Any traveling I do, I usually did as much as possible in the littlest of time in a rush and cramming. Which overtime I am sure what made me lose my appeal to traveling more and more nowadays. To me now, even leisure traveling to me seems like a chore and out of my comfort zone.


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## ShatteredGlass (Oct 12, 2012)

I like this thread.

I was a mentor at my university. I led a group of about 15 through their transition. This entailed weekly meetings and such.

But this week I am hoping to try and make up with someone I said some pretty hideous things to. He also said some extremely nasty things to me so I'm hoping it's reciprocated.. but I'm not holding my breath.


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## harrison (Apr 14, 2012)

Had a few relationships, did a couple of courses at TAFE and Uni (benzos did help there I must admit), got married, had a son, raised a son and stayed married for quite a while, managed to work for a fair while - in retail briefly then in places where I often had to give talks or do tours, travelled quite a lot.


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## Famous (Sep 6, 2011)

I had a jam with some jazz musicians whom I had never met before, it was rather uncomfortable and I couldn't relax to play very well.


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## macky (Jan 25, 2015)

In the spirit of this thread I'll refer to things I've done whilst still in the _early_ period of challenging my social anxiety, rather than in recent years.


Approached and open conversations with female strangers, whilst sober and in a very public area _(edit: ironically my first ever approach was the smoothest)_.
Asked for a random girl's email (as per advised via a tip I read from a Pickup-Artist I was following at the time).
Started going to gym.
Didn't back down when challenged to a rap battle on a bus (I didn't instigate, and fortunately it was pre-written verses).


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## CarpeLibrum (Jun 2, 2015)

I have cold contacted people in person to try to recruit them to research studies. Additionally, I have facilitated focus groups and interviews with people I successfully recruited. 

I also taught a college course at my university when I was a grad student. The professor gave us TAs quite a bit of autonomy in running our own portion of the class, and that was terrifying...but also pretty cool. I'd lecture college seniors for 45 minutes every week and grade their papers. Reading about their ideas and watching their progress was rewarding and also forced me to become a better student myself since I had to understand the material quite well.


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## macky (Jan 25, 2015)

Starcut83 said:


> I've been reciting roughly 5 minute long and very personal poetry/rapping over the phone to a group of about 15 people, most of whom I don't know very well yet, for about twice a week for the last month.
> 
> The nerves and anxiety I feel are much more intense compared to anything I feel in the average social situation. My hands start shaking and it's hard to catch my breath at first but I intentionally slow down inside a bit and take brief moments to steady my breathing while reading and it eventually settles down about halfway through on it's own.
> 
> It's showing me I can do so much more than I ever thought I could. That nerves/anxiety won't kill me. They always pass with a little time if I let them be, instead of trying to fight them and get rid of them. That if it's a new situation there will always be anxiety to some degree and to be okay with it realizing once I'm in the actual situation it's pretty much never as bad as I Imagined in my mind and many times something I would of never expected and would never of known I was missing out on something great.


Not to take away from everyone else on this thread, but great work in being able to do it at all and also working out the coping mechanism. And if you don't mind a little advice from myself, it would just be to keep this phone poetry going for at least a couple of months or more if possible. It can be easy to take your current progress for granted and so start trailing off - but keeping this going can really help establish some long-term benefits (my magic number is always 12 weeks minimum), but it's up to you.

Keep it up!


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## Starcut83 (Feb 13, 2021)

macky said:


> Not to take away from everyone else on this thread, but great work in being able to do it at all and also working out the coping mechanism. And if you don't mind a little advice from myself, it would just be to keep this phone poetry going for at least a couple of months or more if possible. It can be easy to take your current progress for granted and so start trailing off - but keeping this going can really help establish some long-term benefits (my magic number is always 12 weeks minimum), but it's up to you.
> 
> Keep it up!


Thanks! I appreciate it. :smile2: Yeah, I'm going to keep doing it as long as it's an option.


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## Citrine79 (Dec 14, 2016)

Somehow, someway I have managed to continue working through all my struggles. I have always had a job and steady income since graduating college. It is not easy...my former boss was a total nightmare, for several years...worked downtown and had to use public transportation and right now for the past year, I am working at home...which is most definitely not all it is cracked up to be,


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## either/or (Apr 27, 2020)

Citrine79 said:


> Somehow, someway I have managed to continue working through all my struggles. I have always had a job and steady income since graduating college. It is not easy...my former boss was a total nightmare, for several years...worked downtown and had to use public transportation and right now for the past year, I am working at home...which is most definitely not all it is cracked up to be,


I could have written this myself so this. Ditto for the nightmare boss. Sometimes its such a struggle just to get through the day and accomplish what comes so naturally to most other people. It hasn't come easy and may not necessarily last forever but I'm grateful I've had a steady job for as long as I have.


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## Shrinking_Violet (Jan 24, 2021)

I spent 2 years working at McDonald's. That was the most anxiety filled job I've ever had.


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## Sainnot (Feb 6, 2021)

Well I havenâ€™t been putting myself in social situations but, I get groceries at the grocery store in person when I could just as easily order them online. I go a couple times a week and my goal is to appear as normal and average as possible. Sometimes I feel like people are bothered by me but sometimes I feel like I have gone unnoticed. My favorite part of the trip is when I walk down a side street afterwards without many people, and know that I am done with the grocery store for a while.


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## CeltAngel (Mar 24, 2021)

Well.... I used to sing in front of crowds of people. I also used to work in retail.... *shudders*

Most recently though, I managed to go outside of my apartment and walk to the service station which was pretty groovy.


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

I got into a field with a bunch of bullies trying to make each other look bad. Our superiors decided I was a know it all and wanted to 'teach me a lesson'. What I ended up learning in the hell they put me through were massive problems with life saving equipment. Now everybody knows that it will never get fixed, even in new implementations, and to me that's a good thing for people to be aware of.


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## Greenmacaron (Jul 20, 2019)

Working with SEN kids... the fact that I can be verbally abused, spat at and physically hit does nothing for my anxiety. If money wasn't an issue I'd retrain.


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## srschirm (Jun 25, 2006)

Myosr said:


> Everything and nothing.


Oddly enough, that makes complete sense.


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## FloridaGuy48 (Jun 30, 2014)

Shrinking_Violet said:


> I spent 2 years working at McDonald's. That was the most anxiety filled job I've ever had.


I worked at Taco bell for a year. Was awful but it did make me better with social skills and learning to deal with people.


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