Thoughts
Resources online talk about social anxiety as being a fear of embarrassment, or a fear of people laughing at you. But for me, it's more
about being afraid of being hurt, I guess.
I'm normally very self aware, but any time I try to press my System 1 to explain what I'm afraid of it just goes, "aaahhhhah people!" Almost any specific scenario that I can imagine, I'm fine with.
I do kind of worry that it's a feedback loop, and some of my anxiety is a fear of being social awkward or social anxious. I stand in the back of the room because I'm afraid someone is going to talk to me, but I'm more uncomfortable in the back of the room than I would be talking to someone. I guess that's normal for anxiety though. Peeling the band-aid off doesn't hurt as much as you hype it up in your head.