[Octabrain]

I totally relate to this and it's one of the reasons I try to force myself to go out every day (e.g the office). I don't want to let the anxiety tyrant to grow. Also, being in my mid thirties, I've realised that I've been drinking alcohol since my early twenties (nothing crazy, just a few pints of beer every now and then) not because I like the feeling of being drunk, but because I hate the feeling of being anxious and alcohol, at least for me, acts as a solid anti-anxiety drug. Anxiety sucks because it affects critical aspects of my life (social life, sex, perceptions about life itself etc)

It's a complex and annoying problem, because if I go to the GP, I might end up taking pills and I really don't want that. The alternative is to go to a phycologist but, as with restaurants, it's better to get a recommended one and I haven't got any where I live.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[TomaszZielinski]

I partially mentioned this in my other answer ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38302927 )--personally I found a big help in the "Feeling good" podcast and then "Feeling great" book (an older book "Feeling good" by the same author would also work). It's basically a variant of CBT, served in a digestible way.

So if you don't want to start with pills, and you don't have a good recommendation for a psychologist, maybe you could try with a book, a podcast or something like that? (And I don't necessarily mean "Feeling good", that's just the one I can recommend myself.)

[Octabrain]

I really appreciate the time you took for writing this and I'll definitely have a look to this Podcast you mentioned!

[Ensorceled]

Many therapists will work on line. If you are only dealing with social anxiety, and not a lot of comorbidities (like ADHD etc.), online might be fine.

Might be better than nothing in any case.

[Octabrain]

Thanks for this recommendation. I'll search for information about this.