I work full time atm and I tend to get through the day by constantly working (or pretending to) and only talking to people when I need to. I'm lucky in my current job in that I've made a friend who talks to me which makes things easier. I'm usually OK if people talk to me, I just find it near impossible to start a conversation with someone else most of the time.

Alcohol makes the social anxiety go away but then I often become manic and feel terrible when the effects wear off so I've never really considered using that in work.

It's a struggle and I've had jobs where I didn't speak to anyone. In one job, on my final day, nobody spoke to me because I hadn't really got to know anyone. I'd been there almost two years and nobody even said goodbye. Sometimes I wonder who has the problem as even with my social anxiety, I still manage to go up to someone who's leaving on their final day and say goodbye to them. People can be cruel and unfortunately, with AvPD, a high turnover of jobs / unemployment seems to be the norm. I've left some jobs after a few days / weeks as simply couldn't bear being around the people -looking back I don't regret it as I'd hate to still be stuck in those environments now.

One thing I've only recently considered and which may be something for anybody here who isn't working or has lots of free time on their hands is voluntary work. You tend to meet a different sort of person there and it's a good way to try out social gatherings. I went to a meeting this week to hear a talk about volunteering and the people were way more friendly than any job I've ever worked in. It tends to attract caring people and people who have issues of their own.