Social Anxiety translates itself into your online behaviour.

A small attempt to describe how a person with social anxiety struggles with making any social contact, whether offline or online.

I am not here to tell the dos or donts, or that you should particularly exhibit these traits to call yourself a person with social anxiety. It is more of a personal quest, and so is any kind of mental illness. Your circumstances vary, your threshold for handling anxiety varies. Rather than looking at it as a guide book or anything, one should just let oneself feel connected to it with an enforcement of belief that no one is alone in this world.

If only people could know how hard it is for a person with social anxiety to post things on social media.

Logging in to any social media is like entering a room full of people. You think everyone is quietly noticing you, so you check your activity log or profile after every visit to see if you have bothered them in any way.

Liking/sharing any post is not easy for you. You think about how it reflects you and how it affects the other person for days. So you spend your likes/shares cautiously which makes people think you are stingy.

If you spell out your heart in any post then its completely not okay if a person you know well doesn’t like it. You check their signs and yours several times to see if everything is okay between you two.

Unreplied messages are your nemesis. You check them hundred times to see what’s wrong with it and end up saying sorry for whatever it is even if it’s not your fault but you take it on you for them not having a quality internet time.

Calls give you another level of anxiety. You think you are never prepared to answer something instantly. You think your mind is so accustomed to thinking about a zillion times before speaking that you find writing to be a more convenient option. Text messages through any medium are liberating for you.

My struggle with social anxiety has been exasperating one. It’s exhausting, but exciting at times. Exciting, because the reward looks multiplied every time. As I say, anxiety is a little magnifying glass for all our problems and worries. The same implies to happiness, at times. The ocassions of finding happiness are rare but they are as delicious as it’s rarity. As a person with anxiety, I am more accustomed to seeking happiness in small things. No one knows the value of small joys, like us. A small talk or a light pat on the back can send tidal waves of happiness rushing through your spine; it gets you going for days, sometimes weeks. Fragility becomes synonymous with your emotions, you are hurt easily, and happy more easily.

For the person who is friends with a person with social anxiety:

I am not saying that you should put up with the behaviour of a socially anxious person or handle them with kid’s gloves. I am just saying that maybe if you can give them a little more space and not call them out publicly when you know that there is no malice then you should.

Related posts:

The recent school shootings of this year have brought on much debate concerning gun control. One side argues to keep guns. “It’s in our Constitution! We need to defend ourselves.” Their main argument…