Let's talk Social anxiety please!

 Before we get into this, please note that I am not a medical practitioner . I'm only a young girl writing blog posts for who can relate , thank you.

  In my last post,I mentioned talking about anxiety when I am ready,so ,here goes . 

     What is social anxiety? It's a (chronic) mental health condition in which social interactions cause irrational anxiety. That's what Google tells me but if someone asked me that and I had no time to look it up,I'd say , Social anxiety is feeling sick from just thinking about  or being in social gatherings. 

    I didn't get diagnosed in a hospital which I'm very sure is the case with a lot of young people here in Nigeria but it's quite clear that social anxiety is very easy to spot. Even people who do not know what it's called happen to know that something is actually wrong with them . Some people think it's shyness but it's not, shyness is actually very different. It's temporary while social anxiety or phobia is quite long lasting.

    There are lots of symptoms but like I said earlier ,I'm not a medical practitioner , I'm not going to go too deep and I will only be talking about the things I experience(d) personally. 

(1) Being overly self conscious: I would go out and half the time, I'd just be wondering do I look good enough,am I sitting right, eating right, standing right,is my outfit good?! Chile!! This made(makes ) me over adjust my clothes ,hair ,pick at my nails ,use a mirror way too much amongst other things.

(2) Excessive sweating under my feet and on my palms: being around a lot of people made me really sweaty in those places and that made things worse by making me more self conscious than I already was. 

(3) Constant fear of falling or embarrassing myself in public: I can't explain the falling part because even I don't really understand it but the embarrassment part,I'm sure someone can relate 💔😂. 

(4) Inability to speak in front of crowds: I started reading news in front of the whole school(high school)because my teacher forced me,I really thought it would help with my fear of public speaking. Lol,I would mix up my words badly after days of practice. 

(5) Increased heart rate: I do not want to explain this because I'm not a medical practitioner but I experienced it a lot 

(6) Intense stomach pain/upset and farts:this one is funny but!!😂 Yes, it's a thing. 

(7) Not knowing how to act : generally being very restless, folding and unfolding my hands , tapping my feet and shaking my legs, thinking excessively about what to say or do and just feeling weird while doing things others are doing . 

(8) Checking my time way too much: I still do this ,a lot . Anytime I'm out ,I spend more time checking the time than actually focusing on what I'm out for.  

(9) Feeling really awkward when I'm out without a close friend. 

(10) Constantly needing compliments and validation when out: I would only feel better about how I looked when people complimented me and if nobody did,I'd start wondering if I wasn't looking good enough,lol!

  Thank you so much for reading to this point , because I do not want this post to be too long, the last part of this is in the next post where I share the things that trigger(ed) my social phobia and the things that helped me (still help me ) with my fear of being around lots of people. 

    Anddd because I'm very kind, here's a picture of me because this beauty should not be hidden!😂

If you can relate to something I wrote here, please feel free to comment ,share , like and drop your email address so you're the first to know when I make a new post 😉❤️.