New friends

[Andy SP]

 Hi my name is Andy I'm 50 and have suffered with social anxiety for most of my life it may not be as bad as some peoples as I still try to enjoy life and I work too but everyday is hard some worse than others it has left me feeling isolated and with few friends I long for company but my anxiety makes it hard to make new friends so it would be great to hear from other suffers and how they deal with the problem and how it makes them feel.
And hopefully through this site I will make some new friends.

[Ludo]

Hi Andy! I'm also a newbie here, and I relate very much to your intro post.
I'm relatively new to Brighton/Hove only having moved here in January, and knowing that I suffer from social anxiety/avoidance etc and being aware that I find it difficult to get to make social connections someone pointed me in the direction of this forum. I'm really keen to keep trying to break out of this old pattern of social isolation, and "just getting by" socially, and I think this is going to be a really positive place to do it!

I think meeting up with fellow suffers would be particularly useful.

So, welcome Andy!

L

[stresspuppy]

Welcome to the forum Andy, I hope the forum may provide a useful resource for you. There is a dedicated Social Anxiety section on the forum and this might be useful to refer to when you feel the need to hear of others experiences specific to social anxiety and if your not yet ready/unable to attend a meet (it can sometimes take some time to take that step). Having said that although there are specific sections our anxieties sometimes take a range of different forms and the entire site can be worth exploring - personally just reading other posts helps me think about my own situation. and you may even feel like posting a reply or asking questions that you have about anything you've read?

We do meet up on Monday afternoons and Wednesday evenings and details can be found under the Meet-ups and Events section of the forum - we also have a useful set of frequently asked questions under the same section that may answer any questions you might have.

Hope the site proves useful to you