Some very good posts by others.

Confidence comes with age and experience. It really does. That doesn’t mean that your so called ‘social anxiety’ disappears, it’s more that you become relaxed about it. You actually start to appreciate it. Because all it means is you are a sensitive person, and that’s a good thing. The world needs sensitive people. You will start to see it as a positive and it won’t affect you so much. That’s what happened to me anyway 🙂

All the best.

Well it seems that none of you quite know exactly what you want. Nothing wrong with that. But for your own peace of mind you need to be honest with yourself. You have love for him but at the moment you don’t want to be with him. So of course you could tell him that you see him as a good friend. But doesn’t he know this already.

He’s giving himself space from the situation by going away. This sounds like an excellent plan for him. This doesn’t mean you can’t remain friends.

From my own experience one of my best friends is someone I was in a relationship with. The love between us remains, it just morphs into a different kind of love.

Hey

Like you say it sounds like you need to talk to somebody and let all out a bit. I would suggest your parents unless you have a good reason not to. If not your parents then a friend that you feel comfortable with. Basically somebody who you feel will respond in a positive way. When you’re young it’s sometimes good to have somebody older that you can talk to who sees things from a different perspective. (Parents or family are generally best) If there’s really nobody (and I doubt that) then maybe online is a good place. Which you are kind of doing right now. Although I think someone you know, face to face is generally best.

Also let me just say one of the things I’ve learnt is that there is no harm at all in letting your guard down and being vulnerable with people you trust. In fact it’s a very necessary thing sometimes.

I also agree with Pat that suffering is suffering. Don’t feel bad about how you feel.

Good luck 🙂

Hey

Well I guess my very honest advice would be ask yourself (which it seems you already have) why is this a problem? I think within that answer will lie the solution. Simply put, if you don’t care about people and aren’t available to them then eventually they won’t be available to you either.

That doesn’t of course mean that you have to care about everybody. Some people aren’t right for us.

So my question would be why do you feel bad about this? Because if you don’t, then there isn’t a problem. Although as I mentioned I think you do feel bad.
Also I would add you shouldn’t feel too bad about this. Life will teach you 🙂

Peace and good luck.

Hey
These are my suggestions – things that I do or that have helped me out of dark places and lead a more positive life. Maybe they can help you too.

First of all I would say there is both a physical and a mental/spiritual aspect to most problems.

On the physical side:
Make sure you have the best treatment that works for you. What I mean by that is make sure the medication you’re taking makes you feel better and that the doctor you have makes you feel better. Very important. Don’t put up with a doctor that doesn’t work for you. Or medication that doesn’t work for you.

Also on the physical side, it’s obvious but nonetheless true. Eat healthily. It’s very easy to give into the temptation of junk food. But when temptation rears it’s head, all you have to do is just disregard it for a few seconds and start preparing a healthy meal. Once you start preparing it you won’t be thinking about the junk food anymore. And certainly once you start eating the healthy food you won’t be thinking about the junk food at all. The benefits of eating healthily cannot be over estimated.

One the mental/spiritual side:
I highly recommend some sort of therapy. Most of us don’t have somebody who is objective that we can talk to about our problems on a regular basis. It can be very beneficial. Once again same as with the doctor. Make sure they work for you. That they make you feel better – or at least that they make you feel that it is positive in some way.

Surround yourself as much as you can with positive people. People that make you feel positive. It doesn’t matter who they are, whether you know them well or not. With those positive people be open and communicate with them and listen to them – engage with them.

The number one thing for me that gets me out of dark places is to concentrate, look for and recognise beauty wherever I see it, every day. It’s amazing what that can do to every part of your life.

Good luck and peace. And remember you are much stronger than you might think you are.