Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there! I joined this forum because one of my main goals is to socialise more as the only people I interact with are my immediate family. The problem is I have really bad social anxiety (even online) so I always struggle with what to say. Can anyone empathise? Does anyone fancy a chat?
Hi Kit - nice to meet you
I think most autistic people have social anxiety - I do but I am reasonably good at masking it. The isolation of the pandemic has made it worse though and get even more stressed than I used to about social interaction. My youngest son (who is a young adult now) has huge difficulties with social anxiety and had Selective Mutism in School and now at college (he’s not going into college at all now due to social anxiety and other issues). So we can definitely relate! The pandemic has definitely increased our difficulties with this. We feel so isolated and to be honest i (and my son) feel like failures. We can’t seem to cope with the most normal things and it really damages our self esteem. Getting through each day is difficult at the moment. So it’s good to come on here and realise that we are not alone in struggling like this. So many autistic people feel like this and we can support each other.
Hi there! I had to drop out of college because the combination of the work, socialising and commuting was too much for me. I sometimes experience “freezing” where I either get overwhelmed by anxiety or have a sensory overload. I become hyper aware of my mind and body and as a result I can’t talk or move.
Yes - my son has temporarily left college for similar reasons (he has selective mutism too). College can be such an intense environment if you are autistic - and at the moment it’s too overwhelming for him. There’s not that much support for these issues at his college - which doesn’t help matters.