My social anxiety used to be really bad. Honestly, like mental hospital bad. My freshman year of college when my roommates were gone I would pee in water bottles in my room instead of using the communal bathrooms on the floor of my dorm because I was so afraid of seeing people. I would walk 20-30 minutes in negative degree weather rather than take public transportation if I saw someone I knew on it. I had a panic attack over meeting new people at the airport gate on my way to my study abroad semester, missed my flight, and TSA took me to what I'm pretty sure was an interrogation room so I could sit alone and calm down (I ended up taking that semester off).

I've probably avoided 4-5x more events than I've actually gone to in my life, and when I did go, I would usually drink alcohol beforehand.

Now, there are times where I forget my anxiety is even there. What changed?

1. I did intensive therapy for a few months. I did therapy when I was younger, but never took it seriously.
2. I came out of the closet, both to friends and to my parents. This removed a lot of my shame which was a constant inhibition.
3. I got on the right medication (for me, it's Zoloft apparently)
4. I started working out regularly, which made me more confident
5. Using DBT skills (more specifically, opposite action—forcing yourself to do something your mind tells you don't want to do, like go to brunch where you don't know most of the people, in order to realize that it isn't so scary)
6. On a similar note to 5, realizing and accepting that most people, especially strangers, don't automatically hate you and think you're a freak (this is honestly probably the most important one)