I wish dating wasn't hard

@Tatsumi Yeah, it really sucks, especially because there are predators on there. I am going to a trans-focused house party soon though!

@ShaythePanTransMan Hey nice! I hope you have a good time. ^_^

@Tatsumi Thank you, me too. I feel a little anxious, but it'll probably be okay.

@ShaythePanTransMan Protip from an anxious mess: focus externally, not internally.

Also pretend it's excitement not nervousness. It's called anxiety reappraisal, and it's quite effective in my experience.

@Tatsumi All right.
What do you mean?

@ShaythePanTransMan Pretend. Delude yourself into thinking the anxiety is excitement. The symptoms are the same, and they both act on the sympathetic nervous system [or the other one, I forgrt]. So you can "trick" your brain into thinking you're experiencing excitement instead of anxiety.

Assuming it's not panic attacks. That doesn't work worth a damn on panic attacks.

As for focus, if you stay inside your mind, put focus on your anxiety or how you're coming across or whatnot, it'll inflame the anxiety. If you focus on the other people there and the environment, you won't get trapped as much in your anxiety.

Course it depends on what you're anxious about. You prolly should be anxious in some areas, right. But for social anxiety, really great techniques.

@Tatsumi Oh, that's pretty cool. Maybe I can do that....