I’ve been struggling with social anxiety pretty much my entire life now. In college I really struggled but I was getting better at managing it, being more confident in presentations and just talking to people. Then the pandemic hit, on top of that, I lost a close friend in a car crash. That year was the worst for me, I felt like I wasn’t the same after that. I realized this was traumatic for me when I started getting panic attacks in the car when someone else was driving, more like a specific phobia of passenger anxiety. Today, I feel even more anxious and depressed, on top of the social anxiety. It’s been really hard to talk to someone about my issue. I feel like no one around me can relate. I feel like a burden most of the time with my friends because they will do anything to make me feel comfortable in the car, and I appreciate the effort, it just sucks that I can’t be the old me. Now I just get anxious for almost everything, just sitting in class will physically make me have panic attacks. I hate it so much, I feel judged and embarrassed. Ironically, i’m in a teaching program to become a PE teacher with harsh social anxiety. I think I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to prove to be one of those teachers with social anxiety, but it’s so hard! It’s not that I don’t want to teach, it’s these constant negative thoughts that limit me. I don’t know what to do anymore, I just feel like i’m just “surviving” at this point.