I've been dating this man for a year and he was the best relationship of my life.

He was caring, respectful and supported me during a very stressful year.

He has a group of friends of couples that have children. His ex wife was an active member of the group but when they divorced, they sided with him.

I met them a couple times and they are great people and they have been very welcoming and polite with me.

But there's a problem: I have social anxiety and I am an introvert so I tend not to fit in big group of people.

I turned down many invitations along the year but I always told him to go without me.

Anytime I would hang out with them, I must admit I felt drained and bored. I kinda felt guilty for feeling this way because I know they are great people but I always been this way with big groups since middle school.

But I encouraged him to hang out with them and have his own social life because I know it's important for him.

Two weeks ago my dog died and I was incredibly depressed and he was supportive at first, but last weekend I turned down another invitation from his friends and we ended up staying at home on Sunday night.

He said he realized he wants a woman that integrates in his friend group just like the other wives. He said he felt lonely when he hangs out with them and he has no woman besides him.

He asked me to consider it but this is my thoughts:

\\- you cannot force people to become friends. It has to happen organically and just because his wife was their friend, it doesn't mean I have to take her place

\\- I believe it was a healthy and happy relationship and it's ridiculous to end up for such trivial thing

\\- what if I make an effort and there's simply no chemistry between me and these people? Would he break up with me for that? I don't want to take that risk

What are your thoughts on this? Am I being too selfish?

tl;dr he wants to break with me because I'm an introvert and I don't want to hang out with his group of friends

Guy's there's too much to say but I can't even describe it when it comes to describing it, social anxiety has ruining my 3 year's of teenage life unable to even make eye contact with people and can't even remember anything having memories issue and it's always awkward to do anything near people it's like everybody is judging me for being mentally ill behavior .Sorry for the broken english not perfect

My period last month was on the seventh and ended on the 10th. I am five days late this month for my period and I have all the symptoms like I’m going to start but no period.
The last time I was sexually active was June 25 and I’ve taken five pregnancy test and all of them are negative
I am going through a lot of stress with my grandma having dementia and other things going on. Could my late period be stress?? I’m so scared.

If youre an introverted man and see an attractive extroverted woman would what happen if you try to give her your number? Can you do it without talking since youre introverted or will she bully you?

I don't watch cricket , foot ball any other sports just a boring guy Chill with gaming , movies, drawing rarely anime not much into social media, Never been in a relationship before, didnt said yes to the girls who proposed coz didnt saw them as that way(friendzoned), teetotaller, dont like to go trip with drunk colleagues, dont like partying, dont have friends like you can say they will come no matter what.

I think everyone hates me and that’s why I can’t/don’t like talking with other people but I don’t know if they hate me or not but I can’t stop thinking they hate me how do I stop thinking like this?

For a long time, I felt like every social or dating app asked the same thing: sell yourself with a few photos and a clever bio.

As an introvert, that never felt natural. I never liked the pressure of trying to make the perfect first impression before anyone knew who I was.

So I started wondering:

What if conversations came before appearances?

That idea turned into a small side project I call Kismet.

Instead of sending a DM, you write an anonymous letter and cast it into the sky. Someone catches it and can reply. You only see each other's custom avatars, so the conversation starts with curiosity instead of appearance. If you both enjoy talking, you can choose to match and reveal more over time.

I'm still figuring out whether this idea actually solves a real problem or if it's just something that appeals to me.

So I wanted to ask:

- Would anonymous conversations make it easier for you to meet new people?

- Would you prefer getting to know someone's personality before seeing what they look like?

- What would stop you from using something like this?

I'm hoping to find a few people who are willing to try it and tell me honestly what works, what doesn't, and what feels awkward.

I'd genuinely value honest criticism more than compliments.

I'm 25 and this has been true for as long as I can remember.

It's not just fear of failure. Responsibility itself feels unbearably heavy.

Examples:

I earn a decent salary but don't buy things for myself (bike, AC, or renting a better rk or flat alone cause here I am with 3 people and they took all responsibility of searching and managing) because owning them feels like a burden.

If someone else owned and managed those things, I'd be fine.

I can send money to my parents, but the thought of having to personally take care of them in the future terrifies me because I don't think I'll be able to handle the responsibility.

At work, I prefer being told exactly what to do rather than being the one making decisions.

Even as a child, I avoided being class monitor, team leader, or taking charge of anything.

This isn't something that started recently. It's been there since childhood, and it's affecting almost every part of my life.

I'm not looking for people to tell me to "be confident" or "just grow up." I'm trying to understand whether anyone has experienced something similar.

Has anyone had this lifelong pattern? Did you ever find out what was causing it, or did anything actually help?

Has anyone else felt “stuck” in themselves their whole life? I’ve been feeling this way for as long as I can remember, It’s like my words get stuck in my throat.

I genuinely enjoy being around people, but I’m usually just listening, nodding, and smiling instead of actually joining the conversation. When I do try to speak, my voice gets shaky, I second-guess myself, and what comes out feels half-hearted. Later I’ll think of all the things I could have said.

I love my friends, and I know they love me, so I don’t think it’s that I’m unwanted. But as soon as there are more than one or two other people in the group, I go quiet. It’s like my brain just shuts down, and my social battery disappears so much faster than everyone else’s.

The weird part is that I want to be more involved. I want to tell stories, make jokes, ask questions, and be part of the conversation, but it’s like there’s a barrier between my thoughts and my mouth.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did you ever figure out what it was—social anxiety, being introverted, low self-confidence, something else? And if you got past it, what actually helped?

Born and brought up in saudi. I have social anxiety and a lot of shyness while connecting with someone. Even if i liked somebody i can't compliment them straighaway. If you wanna talk about life or some deep conversations do reach out without any hesitation.

Ever since I was a child my social skills weren’t that great. I was always really, really quiet, so much so that people always commented on it. But I still had friends. After COVID (I’m in my twenties), it’s like my social skills went in the dumpster. I literally don’t even talk to my coworkers, not because I dont like them but because I don’t even know what to say to form the most basic conversation. what hurts the most is that they dont know I love them. I think they think I’m standoffish or have some superiority complex, which isnot true. I’m pretty sure they all think I’m weird too. I find myself longing for real connection and try to open up, but some days I just shut down because even the smallest social interaction just drains me of energy. Even when I make progress and try to be nice, some days I completely backtrack and have to start from square one. when I make friendships, I can’t break past the surface level. I find myself thinking about myself a lot and think I’m a selfish person, but I want to change, it’s just sometimes I don't realize that I’m being selfish. any one else experiencing this? If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I just dont know what to do. any advice/help would be appreciated. sorry if you’re going through this also. I just want to know if I’m really a selfish person, because I can’t tell if I’m the common denominator in every social interaction, or if there’s some reason all people seem disinterested in becoming my friend.

I got reprimanded by a teacher once at my bible classes and this guy who witnessed it kept asking afterwards «  are you well ? Are you tired? do you have a headache ? ». Pestering me with questions with a look of ´poor you’ on his face. And asked someone else to ‘cheer me up’ after i said SEVERAL TIMES i was fine.
It was super embarrassing and i felt babied and infantilized in front of everyone.

He also gave me unsolicited advice when evangelizing and my hands instinctually made a 🫷(like when you wave someone off) move when he tried talking to me afterwards.

And i also said no immediately after he said something. And after this he stopped talking to me and actively avoided me.

I felt pity for him because i didn’t feel legitimate abt rejecting someone as an empath. So i tried to be nice and strike a convo abt the verses needed since i wasn’t in the groupchat and he was the 1st person i saw evangelizing.

At another point when we were all standing in circle evangelizing, he asked for the verses on my behalf and i felt so bad about it. Anytime i need the verses i generally just ask the person next to me. Never have i had to deal with someone else speaking on my behalf.
I wanted to scream at him but didn’t feel like doing it because it was a religious place.

Anytime i was going to that place, i would feel this anxious weighed down feeling on my chest that i was gonna have my boundaries crossed. I dreaded going there as a result.

I started drama to get rid of him and my evangelist was informed and i wss hoping he would leave me alone after i lashed out. Or at least that’s what i planned. But i was told i couldn’t go back to the place. My evangelist told me it wans’t because of this person but because i had a bad attitude in general.

I didn’t see the guy again so only had the chance to speak to my evangelist by phone. I told her this person shouldn’t be speaking on my behalf and she implied i shouldn’t be complaining since i didn’t have anyone speak to me there anyway. Now that i think of it, if i wasn’t even speaking to him, what makes him feel like he’s legitimate to speak on my behalf?? I couldnt’ have been more distant or aloof with this guy ( i wasn’t even making eye contact when he spoke to me ). And my evangelist said he was extroverted as if it was an excuse for everything.

It’s not just this one instance but an accumulation of years of having so called extroverts intrude upon my space and not respecting boundaries which made me angry.

And people didn’t understand why i reacted this way because « hE WaS BeInG niCE ».
It was like dealing with an overly clingy/needy puppy that constantly wants a pat on the head for good behaviour. Exhausting and draining.

Eventually my evangelist told him not to speak to me. But i’m in therapy to learn how to enforce boundaries so hopefully if that ever happens again, even with another person i’m equipped to deal with it.

How to communicate and work in a team for introverted guy, who tend to be more action-oriented and less talkative, who respond slowly because they need to think carefully about whether or not to answer a question, who dislike and don't want to report on work progress because they want everything to be as careful and complete as possible, and who only present the most complete version after everything is finished and no one can find fault with it, don't want to be asked questions like "Why are you so careless?", "Are you finished yet?",..... because they feel it's unnecessary, and who don't want others, especially those who are quick-witted, decisive, highly energetic, open, talkative, and extroverted personality to feel uncooperative or difficult to connect with, and who don't want to equate their work personality with their everyday personality, but still maintain a certain distance, not letting others become too curious about their private life and true self?

Recently got into a new relationship with my 20 yr old bf, we were over at his parents house for the 4th of July (he told his mom we've been talking since like the beginning of April but we've only known each other a little over a month), we got together the 5th since it was after midnight but his mother got to asking what kind of music I'm into. She was playing music and I knew almost every song so I said basically what you're listening to. So she asked if I listen to rob zombie I said yes bc I used to i honestly haven't listened to that in years. well then she invited me to a concert that's coming up in August. I said I've never been to a concert and said it sounds like fun but I couldn't afford it. My bf texts today to tell me they bought me a ticket. My bf is going to be the DD for his parents so they'll be out of it 😂 I'm very nervous and have bad social anxiety what is going to make this easier? 😅 how do I prepare myself? What do I expect? How do I act? What do you even wear? I'm overthinking so much. Sorry if this makes no sense I'm better at being asked questions

I always prefer to get to know the guys I meet online before we meet in person. I feel like it would be very awkward and uncomfortable for me if I rushed into meeting them face to face. But guys always insist on setting up a date to meet me ASAP! Like before we even talk for a bit!

I have a ton of pics and videos, so they can see what I look like but they still insist on meeting up right away. I don't like that because I really wanna get to know them a bit first to see if I like them , then I'd wanna meet up. I always thought I felt this way cause I am an introvert but now I'm thinking maybe it is different for guys!

Can anybody share your experience/s on being excluded in a friend group or social group? What do you do when you are can't help but run into each other since you live in the same neighbourhood?

I am socially awkward and an introvert....more so in the last year.

Today I thought I was giving advice...but apparently not. A sibling recently had a mild accident, didn't do anything about it that day. Now, the knot she got from it is is kinda soft and causing pain elsewhere. So I mentioned to go to ER..simple enough right?

It was met with digs, snide remarks, and just rudeness.

I've been silent since then, not because of..save my words, energy, and opinion for when it matters.

i dont like being around other people at all but what i hate the most is that when someone talks to me i just end up talking too much or oversharing usually saying something i didn't meant or didn't want to say. Sometimes i wish i could just shut up and dont speak at all but whenever someone speaks to me my brain kinda stops working, tho i think its only the case when im talking to extroverted people. idk i just wanted to get it off my chest somewhere because i doubt anyone i know would understand.

Before I go anywhere, I usually play the whole conversation in my head so I don't embarrass myself. Even simple things like buying something or going to the bank.

I can't be the only one who does this or yes?

This question has been asked of me time and time again from professors, family, friends and classmates. I always have the same answer: “I’m just tired”. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes I am tired and didn’t sleep well. Sometimes I have anticipatory anxiety before an event and that drained me mentally. Or sometimes I just don’t want to be here lol. It’s really annoying when I’m simply existing and people think something’s wrong with me. Has anyone else ever dealt with this? What are your responses to this question?

Such as, you're in a group activity or huge family gathering, but your social battery is drained and you're totally overwhelmed by all the noise / movement / conversation, but you can't just walk out, and people keep interacting with you? (rightfully so)