Social Anxiety Forums

Funny · Anonymous

Hi I've been socaily phobic for as long as I can remember. Anyway 10 years ago I left school and since then I have only worked for two years, it did not work out. The job was to comfrounting for me. Since my last job I have started 3 jobs only to quit, due my problem. Does anyone know of a particular industry that suits people with social phobia better than others??

boo · Anonymous

I went from the smartest kid in middle school to a college dropout to 20 jobs in the past 10 years. All because of SC. I am 31. I have tried a couple of sales jobs living this pretend world I can do what normal people do only to find out after a week it aint so. I have no friends and came realise only a few years ago I have no friends but also will never have any friends. This somehow made me feel better. I am self employed now
as a landscaper but luckilly I talk to as little people as possible. I dont return calls due to fear and this hurts my business. Suicide is always there.

Bear · Anonymous

Cross country truckdriving and Security Guard jobs worked ok for me.

Funny · Anonymous

Truckdriving, I never thought of that. Thanks. Currently Im working on getting past my anxiety, especailly were work is concerned. Its great to have ideas to research and consider.

spacey · Anonymous

I work full time as a temp secretary but I have to be on seroxat 40mg to do this otherwise I would not be able to work

Alex · Anonymous

I think probably the best way is to find something that you believe in more than you care about what people think.

I think we have to realise that if we want to be able to talk to others we have to listen to them and be interested in what they are saying. If that is the case you stop listening to yourself. Not everyone on this planet is boring, people love to talk and with an ounce of effort it's easy to listen.

The irony is that I love being around people and having fun, but now I feel lonely and lost. I feel a bit of a looser saying this but in the past year I must have drunk about a billion coffees just because in a cafe i can feel that I'm still part of the real world.

In the last two years I've managed a grand total of three months work. I guess you could say this is close to rock bottom.

But I'm not going to give in. The way I see SA (as long as I can overcome it) is that it may not be all bad. SA for me made me question everything and although much was pointless some wasn't. I'm good at hiding how I feel eventhough I feel like running away from the person I 'm talking to.

Something that helped me (I might possibly be rambling now, so escape if you wish), the three months work that I did (actually two) was fundraising for a charity. Now something anyone knows who's done this job is that people can be rude nasty arseholes. They also have loads of excuses as to why they don't want your charity. So when they gave their first excuse I wouldn't say anything, they'd give another and another and another, until you could see the embarassment in them and they'd give in.
What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to.... even if they're talking to you. See what happens if you ask someone a question and when they answer you say nothing but look them in the eyes. Realise that we must take control and enjoy being in control.

I am 26 years old and I don't want to suffer from this anymore. From tomorrow morning every negative thought I have will be kicked with logic. If I feel like running away from something I'll take it head on. I'm going out to get a job and my life back.

Funny · Anonymous

I plan to start with volunteer work, then part-time work and on to full-time work. I hope it works. It could take years, but I guess its worth it.

spacey · Anonymous

thats exactly how I started. First with volunteer then part time and now full time. Keep going. It may take years give yourself time

neddy · Anonymous

Hello, I have also gone through many jobs through the years. My first job lasted 9 years and then I have had many jobs about 30 since 1997. I just couldn't seem to stick at it as I always felt uncomfortable or that people were judging me because i am so quiet, some even said that I was strange as I kept to myself all the time. For the last 7 years I have had jobs where I mainly worked after hours and by myself but I found that the less contact I had with people the worse my social phobia got, it's like I got used to not being around people any more and when I was felt very uncomfortable. I also don't have any friends but I don't worry too much about that at the moment. My number 1 priority at the moment is trying to beat this social phobia and not the other way around.

Four years ago I did something I never thought was possible. I have mainly worked in the retail industry as well as doing alot of cleaning, I decided with the help of someone that I worked with to change direction completely and ended up driving taxis for a living. Fair enough you have to be around people but you don't have to talk to them if you don't want to. I have changed alot over the last 4 years and am no longer so scared of people. When I first started driving taxis I was very scared, nervous and anxious but soon realised that there are alot of nice people out there who just love to talk and are very friendly. This has really helped me alot and makes me more determined to overcome this.

One thing I couldn't handle is that if you go to a club and you can't find your passengers you have to go inside and see the bar staff and they send the people outside. This is way out of my comfort zone, when I walk in the door all I want too do is to disappear as I feel very uncomfortable and can't handle everyone looking at me. Well this is slowly getting easier each time I do it. Unfortunately I do not have the option of not working. I live by myself and have to pay the rent, bills etc and was just unable to cope finacially on the pension. Being a taxi driver is also classed as being self employed. Its up to you how hard you want to work and how much money you make.

George · Anonymous

It took me great effort to get my first job. In fact I delayed a lot of stuff because of anxiety. I delayed getting a job and drivers license until I turned 20 (I'm 21). I got nagged by parents non-stop. All conversations led to them telling me to get a job. I didn't want to talk to them during that time. I tried as best I could to be as little a burden I could on everyone, but it didn't help. I eventually exploded and broke part of my computer desk off and they got off my back a little while. Then it started up again and I told them I was suicidal and then they backed up totally and let me choose the right time to get a job. I got a job probably a year later, the job was terrible and I quit it in two days. All the mental progress I went through up until those two days were totally erased. I became suicidal the first day on the job. I quit the morning of the third day. I felt like I had let both myself and my mom down so I filled out an application to a retail store and got the job, I was freaking out about this job too, but at least at this job I had very nice people to work with. I had to learn a lot of new skills and I have to sell things. I never would have imagined I would be trying to convince people to buy stuff. I'm still at the same job and as long as it stays tolerable I'll not quit.

Luci · Anonymous

Take a job that forces you to confront your fears. Don't give up when it gets tough, and maybe you'll slowly start to see your phobias disappearing.

Avoiding it will never beat it, only make it worse.

When you realise there's no question of whether you can or can't, only whether you do or do not, then it becomes easier. Then you just have to decide to do, and be true to your decision. Ask yourself if you're really prepared to stick it out.

Lucky · Anonymous

On my way into a job I am currently doing volunteer work one mourning a week. I've found that im not so nervous which shocks me a bit. I expected to be losing sleep and throwing up in the mourning before I start. I think volunteer work is a great starting point, there is a lot less pressure and the world needs volunteers.

Triz · Anonymous

I work Full time at an answering service, it was hard at 1st to talk to all those poeple i dont know, but its so much easier cuz i dont have to deal with anyone face to face

Funny · Anonymous

One of my last jobs involved answering phones, I couldn't handle it. I started having panic attacks and not only had to leave the job but was let go (or fired). It sounds like your doing well Tris, good for you

I have just steped my volunteer work up to two mournings a week, so far so good icon_exclaim.gif Anybody having trouble with employment, getting and keeping a job volunteering is just great. I can't beleave that I am doing this work with out throwing up b4 work, without sleepless nights and nerves sweats. I just get a bit nerv-ie the night b4 but hey I can deal with a little bit.

Hobo · Posted: Sat February 17, 2007 Post subject:

I find that most jobs want people with good communication skills and inter personal skills. I have worked on a farm all my life doing manual labour, working with tools and operating heavy machinery. I tried to get a job working at a Honda vehicle manufacturing plant. The interview didn't go that great and I couldn't really sell myself that well because of my social problems. Even with my background in manual labour, tools and machinery, I didn't get asked back because of my social anxiety problems.

I think a job which would be good for some people with social anxiety would be farming. You are alone most of the time working with the land and/or animals. It is hard to get into though, and you would need to handle long hours and basically no holidays for certain types of farming.