# I'm overcoming anxiety...



## bubblepop15 (Jan 25, 2006)

I work as a busboy at a restaurant. It sucks though because I always have anxiety and stress leading up to the hours until I have to go which is normal I guess because most people dread going to work, but once I am there, I act like myself.

I really say anything I want and do anything I want.

I mean, me & the other bussers (and one of the other waitresses) are always making jokes and just talking. It's so fun. 

Last night, when one of the waitresses was driving me home at night, I was just saying anything that popped into my mind without hesitation. It felt amazing.

I know that once I go back to school I will go back into my anxiety-mute mode though. Because I am not really "forced" to interacting with my classmates unlike at work when I have to work with the other waitresses and bussers.

I think that I can settle into a new environment with people my age more easily then trying to start new relationships with my classmates which I have known, and never talked to in the past ten years.


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## Eclectic (Jan 12, 2006)

It's great that you were able to be yourself!  Maybe your level of comfort at work will transfer over to school a bit.


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## GaryUranga (Apr 22, 2006)

awesome, try going back to school thinking that you wont go back into anxiety-mute mode


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

You go, BubblePop15! :boogie :boogie :boogie
Don't forget - we're here if you need us for anything! :yes


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## bubblepop15 (Jan 25, 2006)

Thanks everyone for the responses!

Yeah, I really have to just learn how to feel comfortable around everyone.

One of my biggest problems in work has nothing to do with anxiety really.

For some reason, I have always had a shaky hand. Whenever I have to hold a camera up or a sheet of paper up for someone to read (etc,) my hand just starts to shake.

This really sucks, because when I reach for people's plates it sounds like I am going to drop it or something because my hands are so shaky.

I'd love to get rid of this shakiness!


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## Nahura (Aug 12, 2006)

Yah bubbblepop, that happens to me when I'm really, really nervous as well. I play in a jazz band (currently in high school) and had a 40 bar, improvised solo to give at a school assembly . . . some fine arts presentation, if I remember correctly. Anyway, about halfway through--everything going relatively fine--my hands started shaking like mad. It was pretty frustrating, because not only was it apparently obvious what was happening, but my hands shaking so severely was compromising my ability to actually play my saxophone! The solo went all right (though I still hate improvising fast latin jazz), but when I got back to my seat the person that sits next to me asked if I was nervous and pointed out what I obviously already knew. =P I just trailed off and shook my head. Ah, well . . . 

That's one of those experiences that really encouraged my SA and was grounds for me to look back and be really embarassed over something that people, now, probably don't even remember. I think the shaking is encouraged by my lack of confidence in what I'm doing--in that situation, it was my lack of knowledge of the piece I was performing, enhanced by the fact that a few hundred people were watching. 

I think it happens to everyone, really. One of my music teachers in 8th grade explained how the same thing had happened to him, though it was during a performance he was giving that would determine whether he would graduate from college, so I suppose the stakes were a bit higher there. Unfortunately he did graduate--he wasn't my favourite teacher. 

Anyway, that particular experience caused me to actually dread going to that music class, and eventually school. It triggered the misplaced foot on the first step that causes the metaphorical man to fall down the stairs. I dropped out of high school for a term and took online classes to make up for the credits. This coming year I'll either attend another local high school for my senior year, or take community college classes for a couple years and snag the GED before looking at a university--because of events like that, which eventually lead to poor attendance, embarassing me further. 

Regardless, without those extremely mortifying experiences, I don't think I'd be able to reflect on my life as I can. They do help you grow as an individual . . . as much as they pain you to remember. 

(First post, way too long, I know. >_<)

Cheers!

~Nahura


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## sslhea (Sep 30, 2005)

That's really great that you are having a positive work experience!!!!
I find that my anxiety falls to the background when I'm in motion. It's easier to hide any awkward movement. It's (in a classroom) when I'm still and trying hard to look unconcerned that my anxiety rises within me and spills out in the SA symptoms. (shaking, etc.)


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