Trembling Voice,

When someone has social phobia, it doesn't mean they will not be able to learn how to work through these fears. Your parents should have noticed this and taken steps to get you help with this growing up. Unfortunately there are parents who simply do not take that extra step in learning "good parenting skills". So right off the bat their reaction of you "wanting to be this way" is irresponsible of them and you need to make sure you dont take "their ignorance" as any kind of proof that you are unworthy.

You did make some connections with "older people" at times as you mentioned. Well, that is very similar to making connections with young children. The elderly often slow down on their body language that can be loud and threatening. They have gotten to a point in life where they have been through so much that they have finally accepted who they are and how life is. So as grandparents, they can just be so much more relaxed and accepting and their overall body language is mellow.

So these two groups of people are good to be around at first when someone has "social phobia" because they are the "most accepting' age groups. Everyone has fears when they interact with other people Trembling Voice. It only becomes a "disorder" when this fear becomes more of a challenge to someone and interfers with their abiltiy to socialize and move forward. And it is very important that you make sure you don't think that because you have this "social phobia" as a label, it means that you can't change that and progress inspite of having that challenge.

I don't know where you live, but you should investigate to see if there are some programs around you that focus on working with people that have this challenge.
I know that this can be worked through and children can learn to overcome this and become much more comfortable interacting with others.

If you spend time just "observing" in PC, you will learn that there are a lot of people who have fears and low self esteem issues. So it isn't just you. And there are plenty of people who have challenges and are working through these challenges.

You just have to acquire some skills "yet".

Open Eyes