Hi

Hi I'm new here and just felt the need to vent. I have social phobia and I'm also on the verge of being diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder, it plain sucks. There doesn't seem to be a way out of it. I know in my heart that there's a way out of it but it honestly seems as though you've just got to keep on fighting and fighting. Just how much fighting can one person do?

I'm tired of fighting it too. I remember having it from 1st grade. I was terrified of going to school that first day. My mother kept hitting me with a coathanger, but I wouldn't go. For the next 16 years I went to school without being beaten into it, but I dreaded it. I always felt like a death row inmate in his final day. Then I found it's even worse going into a work environment. My last job got very bad at the end before I got laid off. I've got a year of unemployment benefits coming to me. I just hope the space aliens come to take me before that year is up.

But I want to give you some hope. For a while that job was alright. I had a decent stretch there for a while. Life was pretty bearable. I was lonely, but my cat was a good companion. No gf, but porn and the occasional sex worker filled the need for that. And when you pass 40 the ibido bothers you a bit less.

Hi After The Fall.

I hope you can find what you're looking for here.

Hello, Afterthefall. Yeah. It´s a question of fight and fight, day after day. I have said this in other ocassions but if you keep yourself fighting, in the way you become older, you´ll feel better. You will be able to find some kind of balance and enjoy the possitive things in life.
I´m not trying to be possitive, I´m trying to be sincere.
Wel come!

Thanks for the welcome and the messages much appreciated : )

As with life, some days are better than others. Sometimes I'm fine staying in the house, not working but looking for jobs, just browsing the web and playing video games. Then I realise that I'm 26 and that even though this is a medical condition it just isn't normal.

I should be enjoying life by socialising, going to bars and clubs and making new friends like everyone else my age.

When I think about it rationally, I know I am a nice looking guy by the girls I've dated in the past, and that I do have a really nice personality, it's just I've had major self-esteem issues which bloomed at high school. Oh well, maybe one day I'll actually realise that I do have a lot going for me like everyone trys to tell me.

Have you tried therapy. I'm doing that and I have avoidant personality disorder and social phobia. Its hard but you just got to keep sticking to it.

Yes, I've done CBT.

Actually I've done it a couple of times but with no real success (mainly due to my lack of ability to open up) but saying that, I've found some parts of it helpful. I have said to the mental health team that I may try and do it again. So who knows : )