<p>I have horrible social anxiety sometimes and I'm afraid it might drive me to drop out one day. I went to one community college for a while in a town where I knew absolutely no one and spent the entire semester without making a single acquantance. I'm now going to a different community college that is much more in my comfort zone. I just attempted to call a counselor at VCU to ask about transferring and what classes will, and I got a weird vibe from whoever answered, like what I was doing wasn't the right way, so I just hung up. I know that when I go to uni it's going to be a real painful curve to get around.</p>
<p>I dont have it as bad as you’re describing, but I get nervous meeting new people, going on dates, doing things like dancing, etc. that more outgoing people do more naturally.</p>
<p>I have it really badly, plus I have schizoaffective disorder that can make me paranoid at times. The worst thing that’s ever happened is I had a speech to give in basic english my freshman year and I panicked! Dropped my paper walked outside and LEFT…all my books everything. Luckily I had a friend in the class who picked up all my stuff and took it home, and the proff was <em>totally</em> understanding! You’ll be just fine</p>
<p>Being nervous is part of it sometimes, practice deep breathing when you freak (really! It really does work!) Don’t worry if you get really anxious and just try to remember its YOU and not them.</p>
<p>In middle school and high school I got nauseous whenever I was around anyone outside of my family and my closest inner circle of friends and often felt like I would throw up if I couldn’t get away. I don’t know if I ever actually had diagnosable social anxiety, but it got pretty bad and I went to a counselor every few weeks all through high school and freshman year of college and learned ways to cope with it.</p>
<p>Now I go to one of the largest schools in the country (in terms of number of students) and I’m fine from day to day, though I’m still shy and usually nearly silent with people I don’t know well yet. I think it helps me that I can feel virtually anonymous walking around a school this big.</p>
<p>I found middle school and high school particularly bad because of how judgmental everyone there was…seriously, people would walk up to me and the first thing they’d say to me upon meeting me was not introducing themselves, but asking me if I’m mute… in college it seems that no one really cares enough to go out of their way to mess with someone.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten better about this over the years. But the only one who is judging you harshly and won’t forgive and forget is yourself. How much do you really judge other people who you don’t know for their little mistakes? Not much, and the reciprocal must be true. You’re just being overly sensitive to what you THINK other people MIGHT think, when in reality, they really don’t, and you have to get over that. At least that was the case with me.</p>
Truer words have never been spoken. This is exactly what you’ll find out when you get over the social anxiety. I’ve been introverted and shy all my life, always avoiding meeting people that I didn’t need to meet. And even when I needed to, I was nervous as heck. But I did a week-long camp this summer where it was a judge-free environment. There were about 160 of us and I really cannot explain the aura, you just have to be there, but there is literally no judgment. Everybody is open to everyone, accepting each other for who they are, and takes a genuine interest in getting to know you. It’s a controlled environment that doesn’t really exist in the world anywhere and it changed my life. Now I’m open to meeting anybody and everybody, and the simple things that I learned that enable me to do this are: 1) People don’t really care about whatever you’re being insecure or paranoid about. Really, they don’t. It sounds like generic advice, but it’s true. And 2) I shouldn’t judge anybody by their outward appearances or behaviors. Because then I’m missing out on knowing the true “them.”</p>
<p>Anyways, sorry for rambling, it’s just that this aspect of my life (social anxiety) changed as a result of this camp and it’s actually what my CommonApp essay is sort-of about. :)</p>