Hello

[Emm19]

Hi

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Hi my name's Emma

I'm not really sure about posting this but I'll give it a go. I've been shy most of my life but have only been diagnosed with social anxiety in the last five years. I have been improving my confidence and ability to interact a significant amount in the last year or two but I've never been able to make friends and therefore struggled with school and college; I moved to university this past Saturday and although it has only been two days I am feeling very uncomfortable. I know that I should give myself time to settle in and adjust but I'm scared that it'll turn out badly
Today was the first official set of classes and it seemed to me that everybody was talking to one another and my seminar only has about 8 people in and they were able to talk to each other very easily and by the end of the day they were friends. I did not talk to anybody and I feel really angry at myself.

Can anybody give me any advice because I'm really scared???

Sorry for the rant, I didn't mean for it to be so long

Thanks, bye

[Ben]

Hi Emma, welcome to the forum. :)

What are you studying in college?

[Rebecca]

Hi Emma.

I think however hard you find it, you have to start interacting with people, otherwise you will very quickly feel more and more isolating.

People are only just getting to know each other at the moment, so there is still time to join in, but very quickly people start to form groups and then it is almost impossible to break into them.

Don't worry what has happened in the past few days. Just write them off, but do go in today determined to make an effort to talk to people. Turn on the news or look on the internet for a hot topic or quirky story of the day, so that you have something to start a conversation about. I don't know where you live. Over in the UK everyone is talking about the pictures of Kate, and everyone has an opinion on that, so that is a good conversation starter.

I went to Agricultural College. (Many years ago now). I was just determined to throw myself into it from the word go. I got involved in everything in the first few weeks. Those that didn't very quickly disappeared. It was hard to do, as someone that hated talking to new people, but it really was worth the effort.

I think you have to decide how much you want to be at university. If it has always been your dream, them really go for it, otherwise it may quickly fade away.

Good luck.

[billsticks]

Heyoo,

Here in ireland we tend to break the ice by pointing out something that's stupidly obvious like, "fuck its wet out" or "that man has a giant head huh". after that i have no idea what to say, i just listen and trust that i will come up with something, to be honest though i have no idea what these people talk about all the time and i have no idea how they do it!

[xshezy89]

Hello :)
Welcome