Thank you lynn P. for your encouragement. I'm so embarrassed and self-conscious about my posts that I don't get around to doing them very often. I want to be more supportive of people but am too afraid to say anything...

I've had some form of social anxiety probably since the beginning of high school that's gotten progressively worse over time--especially in the last six months or so. My family tried to plan a trip to Disneyland for my high school graduation this year and I pleaded with them not to make me go. On the way there, I had such horrible anxiety attacks that they finally canceled the trip.

I feel like such a failure in every aspect of my life. I'm debilitated by these irrational fears of prejudice and humiliation. I want my life back! I can't understand how a walk around the block or a trip to the supermarket became so terrifying! It is as though every breath I take is wrong; each step I make subject to jeers. Let me become invisible so as to avoid cruelty's cold embrace!