# I Reached Out!



## Prophesee100 (Dec 8, 2006)

I am not sure if anyone will read this and that actually may not matter. In any case, I'll give a little background. So, I feel very rejected by my extended family: cousins, aunts, etc because they send a lot of mixed messages (long story). I feel somewhat intimidated by one of my cousins who is VERY pretty and outgoing. She has TONS of friends and is a partier type and always has some exciting thing going on and I just feel like she always sees me as a boring nerd. Because of this, I am socially awkward around this cousin, to the point of being rude sometimes. Like, in the past she broke her ankle and I never called or texted her due to my social anxiety and I felt soooo guilty about it and apologized to her the next time I saw her, which was SUPER awkward. I made a promise to myself to never do something so selfish and unfeeling again. I decided if I feel an emotion, I need to express it at the time, rather than keep it to myself, no matter how shy I get. Fast forward to the present time...unfortunately, my cousin's ex and father of her 1st born son just died of pancreatic cancer. As sad as it is, I am happy to report that although it took me a few days, I just now worked up the courage to call my cousin and express my condolences. We talked for about a half hour. She did most of the talking and I just listened, but I feel SOOOO good because not only was it a nice, very human and loving thing to do, it was very adult like. I'm almost 40, and running away from these basic social situations makes me feel that people look down on me as if I'm not an adult. Doing this, reaching out to my cousin made me feel good to be supportive of her and made me feel very adult. I can't help but be proud of myself for overcoming a BIG social anxiety.


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## truant (Jul 4, 2014)

@Prophesee100 Sorry to hear about your cousin's loss, but congratulations on reaching out!


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## RSxo (Apr 19, 2018)

Sorry for your loss, always here to chat if you need it. Well done for reaching out, it's a step forward


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## Prophesee100 (Dec 8, 2006)

Thank you RSxo!


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## Prophesee100 (Dec 8, 2006)

Thank you!


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## irishkarl (Apr 20, 2020)

well done for you for taking that step to ring your cousin.....i would find that extremely hard myself.....well done


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## Harrysalvatore1989 (Oct 27, 2020)

You are well done. This is a huge victory over yourself and your problem. I am sincerely happy for you and sympathize with your family. It seems to me that everything will turn out right for you. I believe in you!


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## Whatswhat (Jan 28, 2018)

Supporting your cousin and taking a step against SA at the same time, nice!


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## ramseybolt (Dec 16, 2020)

You are brave! Keep going ahead!


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## ramseybolt (Dec 16, 2020)

Thanks for sharing this, by the way. It motivates people!


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## NotFullyHere (Apr 29, 2018)

Very inspiring story but also a sad one. It's true that the more we delay things the more tougher it becomes to confront, but we also need to keep in mind that not everyone thinks too much like we, people with SAD, do. That's why it can become an awkward situation very quick. But I'm inspired by your will power to confront things sooner than later, that's a huge step in the right direction, I believe!


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