It does sound as if you are experiencing an anxiety disorder. Untreated anxiety disorders can push people into avoiding situations that trigger or worsen their symptoms, which sounds like a symptom that you are describing. Although each anxiety disorder has its own unique characteristics, most respond well to two types of treatment: psychotherapy and medications either prescribed alone or in combination.

Your first step will be to seek a diagnosis. Anxiety disorders can be treated by a wide range of mental health professionals, including, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers and psychiatric nurses. Finding the right therapist can be tricky, because it's important to feel comfortable with the person. Don't be embarrassed if you feel uncomfortable and would rather see someone else.

Here's a therapist directory or you can find more information here:

http://www.adaa.org/GettingHelp/Treatment. asp

Let me know if you'd like help locating treatment. If you can provide me with your city/state...I can help you look for a directory listing. You're on the road to finding help!

Thanks so much for responding and giving me some info to research. I will check further into these areas, and would appreciate any other responses. It feels good to be able to get other peoples views on this subject, I guess it makes me feel a little less crazy!!

I also think that it's important that you get out there and seek some help. It's difficult to overcome these fears, but you are not alone and not crazy! You might benefit from individual or group therapy, or a combination of both. I went through a period where I went to therapy for 4 months, then 1 year and then a few years working with a mentor. It's totally normal!

Im going to be blunt here. If you really want to overcome your social anxiety and xenophobia, you've got to stop acting like a social cripple. What do i mean?

Emotions come from thoughts. Thoughts are created with vocabulary. You can't feel anything until you have a thought about it first. And you can't have a thought about anything unless you have the vocabulary to build that thought. This is why you cant remember being a baby. You had no vocabulary.

Now, you see where i'm going?

You said, "Having to be around strange nurses poking and proding was sheer agony"

Lets look at how your vocabulary builds the thoughts that create your "sheer agony."

1. "Having to be..." you just painted yourself in a painting entitled, "Helpless Victim."

2. "strange nurses..." what exactly is STRANGE about people who care enough about your health to take an intense job like being an obgyn nurse.

3. "poking and proding..." you described your reproductive organs the same way cowboys would talk about rustling together their livestock.

4. "sheer agony..." SHEER??? you like the drama. If you really didnt like drama, you'd have just said ... "agony..."

If you like having a insular life where you are socially quarantined, fine... be happy with that life. If you want to open up to the world, fine, totally overhaul your vocabulary. Change the way you see and think... then the way you feel with change. AUTOMATICALLY

AWESOME advice, from both responders! I never thought of this from biodrux, but it makes sense! I grew up with low self esteem, always the one picked last for a team, made fun of, did not play well with others...........I know, LOOK AT ME NOW! I discovered I had this talent for making people laugh, smile or jsut plain feel good about themselves. It took me a very long time, and gosh knows I can't get those years back. I can relate to what you are feeling and what others feel, because I HAVE been in those same shoes.

Thanks biodrux, I appreciate your advice and point of view. I was just wondering if you have ever experienced any social anxiety?? I noticed you have some good advice for quite a few people on this site and was wondering if you have experienced these things and have overcome them also.

Hi anp,

everyone deals with social anxiety. Imagine... without society... or other people... if you were on a paradisaic lush tropical island (without mosquitos) or any other people... would you have ANY ANXIETY AT ALL???

you have shelter under a tree or a cave... you have all the fruits and seafood and bunny rabbits to eat... no clothing needed... you have shelter, food, clothing.

NO PEOPLE= NO ANXIETY.

The trouble is that if you think you are exceptional as far as a problem goes, you feel isolated. You feel distanced, outcasted... So just realize that everyone feels the same way - more or less.

I do understand that everyone has some level of social anxiety such as not wanting to do a presentation in front of 100 people or jitters before starting a new job. I just want to be able to function on a normal level. I feel like I am in a box that I cant get out of. Like I want to just scream at the top of my lungs!! Have you ever experienced that?? I dont want to be on medication that puts me in some sort of dream world, but if there is something out there that will take the edge off to help me cope with certain situations than I may be open to that. I have researched all natural herbs but don't know anyone that has tried them to know if they really work.

anp,

this is precisely the issue... you want to function at a normal level? Most all of our problems can be resolved by simply changing our perspective.

... in fact I cant think of a single problem that is not solvable just by changing perspective.

It may sound like an oversimplification... but read again what you've written... you want to function on a NORMAL level.

Somehow, as a child, you developed a hyper consciousness of NORMALCY or being abnormal. Maybe it was your physiology, appearance, , your family economic status, your religion, your parents... perhaps even a TALENT or a GIFT you have that made you feel ABnormal.

If you have years of practice feeling ABnormal, then you've become an expert at feeling isolated and segregated. This is something to feel proud of. You've successfully broken out of the single greatest trap of all humanity... HERD MENTALITY.

You know how many people dont have a mind of their own? I mean comeon... We voted for BUSH TWICE!!!

The lost ancient secret to change is not to realize that you are in the wrong and you must get to CORRECTNESS... the greatest secret to change is to realize that YOU ARE ALREADY FINE! You just want to experience a different kind of "NORMALCY"

Let me clarify one thing... IF you start the task of approaching a goal with the mental attitude that you are already at a disadvantage... YOURE STARTING WITH A DEFICIT...

THATS LIKE STARTING A BUSINESS WITH A HUGE DEBT.

THATS LIKE STARTING A RELATIONSHIP WHILE LIVING WITH YOUR FAMILY.

THATS LIKE STARTING A DIET RIGHT AFTER THANKS GIVING!

Know what your goal is. Know that even without accomplishing that goal, you are already perfect just the way you are.

PROOF? well, you have people who love you right? If they find you worthy of their love, then are the people who look down on you more important people than those who love you? Smarter? Better Humans? NO WAY. The people who love you... love you JUST THE WAY YOU ARE.

So everyone else's opinion is worthless.

SO... that just leaves you. YOU are the last opinion that matters. YOU are the one who must realize that you are already PERFECT.

Then you can move forward at an advantage .. not a deficit.

You are exactly right!! I have a husband who loves me and a daughter who thinks that I am the best!! I am my own greatest enemy--Just ME!! My internal thoughts are what hinders me, how do I change that? I have days that I can fight the thoughts that overwhelm me but there are days that I just seem to let them overtake me. I have endured a war zone of a childhood and a rough few years of marriage and you know what I was strong enough to overcome that and I WILL be strong enough to overcome my own internal war zone that goes on in my mind!! I have to reprogram my thoughts--reprogram how I feel about myself.

"I was strong enough to overcome that and I WILL be strong enough to overcome my own internal war zone that goes on in my mind!! I have to reprogram my thoughts--reprogram how I feel about myself. how do I change that?"

PERFECT!!!

you asked the PERFECT QUESTION!!!!

actually you are 90% DONE!

In french... there is an expression,

"Answers are death. Questions are life."

In otherwords... you ask the precise question to start your new life. It takes tremendous spiritual, emotional, psychological, and physiological change to just be able to face the truth... the rest.. .well.. its just mechanics...

training your mind and chemistry to react differently to the same stimulus.

GUESS WHAT? Dogs, Circus Monkeys, and Lab Rats can all be easily trained to REACT differently to the same initial stimulus... in laboratories... its called classical conditationing.

So... umm... in reality... you are 98% DONE.

Stay with this for now... forget the mechanics of reprogramming yourself... JUST REALIZE THAT YOU ARE 98% DONE. Let it sink in deeply. This is the most important part... Relish the Scenery from this new peak you are standing upon.

Thanks its great to get your view, some of the things you say actually remind me alot of my husband. I just need to focus on not getting overwhelmed with my thoughts and emotions and actually enjoy each day of my life. This is sometimes easier said than done, but I am 27 years old and refuse to spend another year of my life this way!!

Step by step. What is the first step that you are committed to taking?

whether foods or medicines for anxiety or depression are all natural or made in a lab, doesnt make a difference. whats important is that the stuff you use works... and with little or no side effects...

Trouble with most natural remedys is that in a scientific test... they don't perform much better than a placebo. They amount to folk remedies that work because you've been trained to make them work since you were a kid. The worse it tastes... "the stronger it must be" you tend to think...

The problem with pharmaceuticals is ... well they are manmade... when was the last time you know of ANY manmade invention that didn't have gosh awefull sideeffects? Car=polution. Plastic=nonbiodegradable. Cellphones=...

look up two formulas named leitzin and serenadin.

=)