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Travelling with social anxiety

My social anxiety is pretty debilitating. I hate small talk, going to shops and I basically keep social interaction to a minimum around people I don't know although it depends on my mood, lately I've became worse. I can get by living independently but it seems way to uncomfortable, no normal person would stress about having to go to the till at a supermarket and try avoid it and use self checkout. I realised it's a lot easier to avoid these situations in the UK, people aren't overtly friendly, in fact if you tried to make small talk with a stranger they might look at you weirdly or be surprised as it's not something that happens frequently and people in big cities in UK keep themselves to themselves. I do need to venture out of my comfort zone though.

Seems like I'd struggle travelling, I really want to go US and Canada but I know I just couldn't deal with people, they seem a lot more open and social. I do wish I'd get over it, I like socialising at heart just get scared shitless of people and judgment. When I drink I go into complete extrovert mode, becomes hard for me to stay quiet and everyone is surprised how different i act
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Dan193 · 31-35, M
That was me when I was younger. Now I'm not super open either, but in the past, like around your age, when I could drink in public, I'd drink and be noticeably more extroverted and my friends would let me know. However sometimes when I'd be more quiet in a social setting, they'd be like "get Dan some drinks!" or "Dan, why are you so quiet? get a drink or something" and it felt a little bit insulting ...like they'd rather have me around while drunk, than while I'm me. So that's partly the reason why I stopped drinking.
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Dan193 · 31-35, M
@RippinKlouds What exactly? being more open when being drunk?
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Dan193 · 31-35, M
@RippinKlouds I guess that's how our brains work. Even if you're suppose to know everything, you couldn't really know it without experiencing it.