Go to a shrink. Especially if your health insurance has a "mental health" allowance.

 

Good idea. I need to research to see if that's available. I would rather not have therapy sessions with a shrink because I absolutely hate talking to someone about my problems. Even when I'm upset for some reason, I just like to be alone and away from other people. Medication may be my only help.

 

its called being antisocial. I've been doing it my whole life

The only thing I've found that helps is booze, but that causes other problems

 

See the problem with that line of thinking is the only way to establish what kind of medication would be right for you is to spend a bunch of time talking with a shrink. It's going to take more than you showing up and saying you've diagnosed yourself with a particular disorder. There's lots of variations of the problem and lots of possible chemical things that could be going on up in your head. So far you've said you have social anxiety disorder; well, there's four classes of drugs used to treat it and several different drugs within each of those classes. The way to figure out which one will work is to go to a shrink. Oh and btw, both psychologists and psychiatrists can conduct therapy sessions (i.e. talk with you), but only a psychiatrist has a medical degree and can prescribe medicines. Usually people that go to a psychologist have that person make a recommendation on what a good treatment might be, and consult with a psychiatrist as far as the actual drug to go with. Sometimes it's actually better to go this route, because if you go straight to a psychiatrist they'll be more likely to just give you some pills whereas a psychologist will do more in the line of helping you to understand your behavior and what to do about it before referring you to a psychiatrist.

 

This is a bad way to look at it. I'd call this "the easy solution to a complex problem."

You want to help yourself, right? See a therapist and maybe take some low dose of medication to help you for a few months. Therapy alone is more helpful than medications alone. Medications alone are a band-aid approach.

You won't be the first person they have had that doesn't want to talk about themself. It's uncomfortable, it's kind of scary, but in the end you'll end up with a better feeling than the "blah" medication feeling of....not feeling. It's not so much not feeling, it's so much not caring. At least that's how I felt, and I didn't like that at all. But even with therapy you cannot expect to go in and in one session go "OH I AM READY TO JUMP HEAD FIRST." No, you're going to have to force yourself into uncomfortable situations to find out that they're never as bad as you think. It takes a lot of effort outside of therapy. Avoidance is a horrible cycle. Obviously your current duck and hide approach to it isn't working, so what makes you think that doing the same about getting help is?

Also, this isn't a one in 1,000 people thing. It's very common. Or just commonly diagnosed. I'm sure that somebody at one of these gathering-type situations is just as nervous as you. And not too many people are comfortable with therapist-visits. You just have to do it. :happysad: There's no other simple answer I can give you.