My social anxiety issues have been with me most of my life. I've had times in my life where they were barely there and other times where I was almost crippled by them. I used to think I had made some pretty good strides with SA but, recently I've fallen back into my old ways.

I'm back in the job market and not really looking like I should. I still find it awkward to go into public places by myself. And I've found that I am getting more and more distrustful and angry with the average person on the street. I can't deal with the non-caring attitude of people and how most are overly aggressive and unfriendly. I'm sure some of this is in my head and some is not.

I don't want to go down this road where I become so withdrawn and weird that I can't function. Like most of you, I truly love and want to be with people. But, therein lies the oxymoron of SA. I can't seem to do it. I find myself unable to think of what to say when around non-close friends or I ramble fast and incoherently. All the same, not something I enjoy doing.

Anybody else struggling with dealing with people in these ways and ups and downs?

Yup. Wish I knew how to conquer the same issues. Adderall helps with my panic attacks and social ability but makes me an even bigger procrastinator somehow.

Bigger Procrastinator? Yikes. I would die of Atrophy of that was the case. :-(

Give some cognitive behavioral therapy, meds or preferably both a try if you haven't.

So cognitive approaches truly yield good results for people with ADD? I assumed the chemistry of the disorder itself would cancel out any cognitive therapy? Of course, I know next to nothing about ADD treatment with cognitive therapy. :-D

D

Anti-anxiety meds plus cognitive behavior therapy have helped me with this a lot. CBT can be extremely helpful for working out issues that involve negative thinking, poor self-esteem, imagining that you know what others are thinking, that they're judging you, that you're not good enough....etc. These things lie at the root of my SA and depression and are separate from my ADD. The ADD continues to affect my life, but by treating my anxiety and depression, my quality of life has improved. It's a long road, but life is definitely better. I can even answer the phone now!

Busyhermit summed it up but I was referring more to the social anxiety you were talking about. Behavioral therapy has been shown to help ADD but I don't think it is as effective for ADD as it is for unlearning self defeating thought processes that often those with social anxiety get ingrained within themselves. Honestly, I wouldn't put any money on this observation because I tried for years to overcome my SA through various means and it never got any better until meds but I still would lean towards CBT being more effective for SA for the reasons I mentioned. I have only been to a few CBT sessions and while I certainly am still inexperienced with it I will say it seemed to have a great deal more potential than I originally gave it credit for.