Hi Ghost --

You can overcome this, if you want to.

I used to have trouble communicating. In fact, in my 20s, my friends -- mind you my friend called me The Sphinx bec. I was silent if a group got bigger than say, Oh me.

Or at least, me and one other person. And even then I mostly listened.

I became a reporter, and one day when I was in my late 30s, a bunch of us got talking, and all of us got into newspaper because of a newspaper column we'd read by a guy now dead (Norton Mockridge) saying that being a reporter helped him to overcome his shyness.

Eventually, I became so interested in facing up to my communication challenges, that I became a communication professor. Among other things, I teach public speaking and lecture to classes of 100.

One of the things I did along the way to confront my fears was to join Toastmasters. Our group would generally be around 20. My hands would shake when I sat down after a brief speech of a few minutes.

Research shows that most people fear public speaking more than death.

For some of us, even small groups are terrifying. I still don't like parties and meet-and-greet events.

You can take steps to change, if you want to.

And keep writing. That's a perfectly legitimate way to express yourself, too.