"But you don't SEEM like you have social anxiety..."

"You have social anxiety?" 

"Yeah right, you talk so much and are so friendly." 

*Insert eye roll here.*

The truth? I do, in fact, have social anxiety along with the slew of other mental problems. The reason you can't tell that I have social anxiety is partly because I've been taking medication for it since I was 19. That makes five years of taking medication for my social anxiety as well as going to both group and individual therapy. 

Not only does the medication I take help, having social anxiety does not technically mean that you can't speak to people. It means that it's more stressful for you to speak to people or that you over analyze a lot of interactions more than normal people do. So just because I don't seem like I have social anxiety on the outside, doesn't mean that my brain isn't going crazy thinking of all the different scenarios that could go wrong with said interaction.

I read somewhere once that extroverts become energized by social interactions and introverts have their energy drained by social interaction. This makes total sense to me as someone who has social anxiety (which usually means you're introverted). There are times where I need a night or a whole day alone just to recharge my brain. And when I say alone, I mean alone. No friends, no boyfriends, no parents-- alone, where I can just sit and do whatever I want. I can watch Criminal Minds, go on Tumblr and just recharge. Now wanting to be alone isn't because I don't want to be with these people or because I don't like spending time with them, it's purely because for my brain to function properly, I need this time to recharge. 

It's very easy to assume that people don't have mental disorders because they don't act in the typical ways associated with that disorder. Just remember that, that's the point. They don't want you to know that they have a problem and they've probably been working their way to this point for a while. They may be on medication that helps with the disorder or have been going to therapy to help with it. Remember, don't assume, because it just makes and "ass" out of "u" and "me". 😉

John Mulaney talking about having social anxiety is everything: