Struggling with Social Anxiety: Seeking Advice

What helped me was exposure. I used to have social anxiety so bad that I would run out my cupboards so as not to have to leave the house and go to the store out of fear of sociality. It was so bad you could probably call it social phobia. My girlfriend pushed me a lot with regards to social situations. I would go in with her to places and social situations, and that calmed me down a lot, and she would do the talking and interacting for me. Then eventually I did more interaction going in with her, and then at some point I just cared so much less and going into the store alone was like nothing to me. Exposure did wonders for me, it practically saved my life. Because I practically didn't have one with how much I avoided people. Getting someone you love and trust to help you through it like my girlfriend did is such a massive help, made it so I couldn't back out easily

I think the thing that helped me most was exposure therapy. I remember I did that with a group of people who all had anxiety. Generally anxiety makes us think of the worst case scenario when that’s more than likely not going to happen. We did it in a group where one of us would go to a store and ask an embarrassing question by ourselves before going back to see the group. It might be kinda confusing the way I describe it, but overall it’s good to remember that not being perfect in public and asking weird questions and making mistakes is normal. It’s more than likely that if you made a weird face or something similar, people probably won’t react in a negative way.