Hi. I am 17 years old and I am currently untreated Social Anxiety. Social Anxiety has really affected my life. I feel weird and act very quiet in social situations. I have in the past but I currently have no close friends. I get along with people and nobody has a problem with me but I just don’t connect. I use to be a lot worse when I was younger but after I was put on Remeron it helped me be more normal. After a while remeron caused more damage than good with leaving me groggy the next morning. Its anti anxiety effects had kind of evened out by that point anyway. Now the only person I am close to is my girlfriend. My Social Anxiety hurts our relationship because I get jealous and feel left out when she does things with other people. I haven’t ever had general anxiety before but I do now because of my Social Anxiety. This is because she is the only person I have and I fear losing her. I have lack of self esteem and I seem to get very protective. I am planning on seeking treatment because I realized what an unhealthy lifestyle I am living. What type of medication do you recommend? I am unsure if the SSRI’s will help that much and I don’t know if I can wait that long to see if they work.

I feel the same way. I am newly diagnosed w/ social anxiety and unlike ADD....where I suspected I had that...social anxiety just never occured to me. I am being treated for depression and ADD (wellbutrin & ritalin). I can't offer suggestions on meds...I've never taken any for anxiety. I was wondering how they improved your anxiety.

Hi. I am 17 years old and I am currently untreated Social Anxiety. Social Anxiety has really affected my life. I feel weird and act very quiet in social situations. I have in the past but I currently have no close friends. I get along with people and nobody has a problem with me but I just don’t connect. I use to be a lot worse when I was younger but after I was put on Remeron it helped me be more normal. After a while remeron caused more damage than good with leaving me groggy the next morning. Its anti anxiety effects had kind of evened out by that point anyway. Now the only person I am close to is my girlfriend. My Social Anxiety hurts our relationship because I get jealous and feel left out when she does things with other people. I haven’t ever had general anxiety before but I do now because of my Social Anxiety. This is because she is the only person I have and I fear losing her. I have lack of self esteem and I seem to get very protective. I am planning on seeking treatment because I realized what an unhealthy lifestyle I am living. What type of medication do you recommend? I am unsure if the SSRI’s will help that much and I don’t know if I can wait that long to see if they work.
The SSRI's never helped me. I had to go through a string of differrent meds before I convinced my doc that I wasn't depressed and wanted anti-anxiety meds. Now I take 2mg of clonazepam everyday and although I still have rough patches, it's much easier to make it through social situations with the medication.

Ultimately, I'd love to join a support group but I've yet to find one. :(

might i recomend letting your doc recomend a med rather than people on a forum. No offense but your doc / psych is likely to be able to make a better choice on what meds would suit you, most of the time. Anxiaty suffreers (myself included) get benzo bassed meds thrown at them usualy so expect valium / lorazopam / xanax / olazropam / blah blah blah or something similar. I was on lorazopam but for other reasons i've been weend off it.