Stopping/Controlling Anxiety by Any Method

Not so weird actually. His anxiety has nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with control and structure. An informal gathering is free form. A presentation follows a bunch of rules.

Close, but no cigar. http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/O … iate_comparison

Yep. Exactly, what he told me also. I actually have the opposite problem. I’m okay in an informal gathering to a large extent but feel more anxious in a controlled, full of structure environment especially if I feel my performance is being judged. I hate weddings and some other formal social occasions (award dinners), etc. though for non-anxiety reasons. The boring, stupid speeches, the stupid penguin tuxedos, plates banging, all that congratulatory, shaking hands crap and the wasted money, fucking boring, meaningless conversations and uncomfortable clothing. The thing that I hate the most is those friggin baby and family or camera pictures (isn’t she/he cute or adorable, etc). I feel like vomiting. I have no clue why but I’d rather read a good book or serf the Internet, watch sports, work out.

Is your anxiety diagnosis “Social Anxiety Disorder” or something else? And do you agree with whatever label you have been given?

My official diagnosis by my current psychiatrist is performance anxiety (stage fright) and generalized anxiety disorder. I don’t like the label because I’m worried the label may cause myself or others to miss something. But this guy is the best psychiatrist I’ve ever had.

I had one addiction specialist who specializes in dealing with addicted health professionals diagnose me with avoidant personality disorder. He forgot his basic psychiatry not to label somebody while they’re still in withdrawal. I wrote him a letter that he got a really bad hair transplant, it was really noticeable and that his diagnosis was inaccurate. When I called him for another appointment he didn’t want to pick up the phone. His secretary said if I want to continue with him he was charging me $2000. I think I embarrassed him. It was fun because the guy was a cocky, non-empathetic prick. And he really did have a bad hair transplant.

As messed up as these on-line psychiatric/personality tests are, I’ve done most of them and come out negative in all except the 3 below that really stand out. I know they’re not very useful for diagnosing disorders but to me it seems like all 3 tests have many overlapping symptoms and getting high scores on one test leads to high scores in all of these 3 tests. I think the second test/syndrome is more controversial, because I’ve never read about it in any psychiatric literature but there a few papers in pubmed about it. Not sure if it’s valid. I’m just trying to figure what the root cause of my anxiety is as my psychiatrists/psychologists haven’t been able to. Anybody else scores positive on all 3 tests?

1. Asperger’s test

http://www.rdos … /Aspie-quiz.php

Did it 3 times on 3 different days. Scored over 170 all 3 times. Very high score.

2. Highly Sensitive Person test

Got 25. Very high Score.

3. Social Anxiety test

http://www.soci alanxietysuppor … rder/liebowitz/

Got 64. Moderate score.

Asperger’s: 70

Highly Sensitive Person:14

Social Anxiety: 2

I didn’t think such a low score was possible. That’s amazing.

I was not paying attention when posting that I will retype it up later

Actually, I think I understand what fat_cock is trying to say. Basically if you keep your adrenaline consistently high, you become adapted to it, so when you have an anxiety situation, it doesn’t feel out of the ordinary (desensitization). Also, it’s harder to get anxious, if you’re really exhausted from working out, etc.? This happens to me occasionally, but it only lasts for a little while, just after a work-out.

Do you feel like you’re a social “genius”? I’m not joking. There are some theories suggesting that some individuals who have social anxiety disorder:

Tend to be gifted socially. That is, they are more aware of social subtleties that most people don’t pick up or filter out. Regular social information is processed and analyzed to a greater extent which can be become overwhelming and anxiety-provoking. Some may not crave social interaction not because they feel inferior but because such situations are too overwhelming. I’m not sure if I buy this though.

I was never like this. I tend to be emotionally and socially very immature, I think. If anything, I’m kinda socially retarded, but I’ve learned through my many fuck-ups how to act appropriately in social situations, I think.

It has had a positive social impact on my life.

People around me tell me I scare them, because they are used to not hearing anything from me.

I Have not had adrenaline rush since the middle of last month..

Plus my blood pressure has drop quite a bit, it’s around 80-86bpm

Before it was 96 to 120 range.

Behavior therapy (exposure) is generally accepted as the most effective treatment for anxiety disorders, especially in the long-term. The exception is GAD, in which it is unknown what exactly to “expose” the sufferer to, since the fear/anxiety does not seem to be attached to any particular stimuli.

Drugs can help some people, although as bohm said, SSRIs don’t do much for most people, and benzos can lead to worse problems (and can block the learning that happens in behavior therapy).

Nope.

Here are my social issues:

1. horrible at small talk and just fitting in with “regular” banter
2. I am a know-it-all and have trouble “just being normal” and laughing at myself

Again, these two things are not constant. With people I am comfortable with, my wife, some friends, family, I can let go and be a clown. But with new people, and especially at work, I just feel like a total social retard. I wish I could be at ease and laugh at myself, but for the most part, I feel like I have to perform at a level of total perfection. So being able to say “I don’t know” how to do something is hard. But not as hard as laughing at my boss’s jokes, which I don’t get, or just making comfortable small talk. So when I am stressed, I often come off as robotic.

The irony is, many people tell me I am a great conversationalist. But that is likely because I have am well read and like to talk about interesting things. It just seems like most people want to talk sports, or gossip, or “riff” off one another like an episode of Friends or something.

Depending on my cycle (bi-polar) I shift from being the most easy going person in the world to what you describe here. I fit the same profile word for word.

Anxiety/insomina pretty much ruined my life. I gave all the main drugs a go - at least 3 months a piece - all failed.

My last hope is that I can change the chemistry of my brain by force of will through the wonders of neuroplasticity.