Recently I posted a thread outlining one way to temporarily overcome social anxiety - imagining the person you're talking to is taking a dump. However, it's obviously not as simple as this.
Does anyone ever get the feeling that their social life consists of a series of fumblings, minor embarrassments and feigned looks of interest interspersed with the odd, short lived, semi-meaningful connection?
Examples:
- You have a concept in your head and only a short window of time to put it on the table, but your mind dries up and you panic, unable to follow a train of thought to string a coherent response together. Your sentences peter out and you make a gesture as if to say "I'm an idiot, ignore me, move on".
- You feel constantly on the spot and wonder how the hell other people reel off line after line of interesting detail about their lives while you feel you are constantly searching for anything interesting to say... anything!!
- You are a conversation ender. You feel like a door constantly shutting in the other person's face, not because you're not interested, but because your mind won't give you the fodder with which to respond meaningfully.
- Every time you open your mouth, you feel like you're making small talk or something completely random spills out leaving the addressee confused and uncomfortable. If you're lucky, they'll laugh - uncomfortably.
- You dread the drawn out silences that inevitably result from the above fumblings.
- You finally get time to yourself and you keep reassuring yourself you're just one of those "shy, introverted" types that people often have a quiet fondness for, but in reality you know you're just a boring, weird, withdrawn little freak who cannot properly engage in basic conversation.
- You feel like Mr Bean. You are Mr Bean.
- You get tired of thinking "I can't believe I said/didn't say that".
If you feel the above applies to you, what have your experiences been and have you been able to overcome these awkward feelings?
