I have always been a very socially anxious person. I can look incredibly confident in settings when I get comfortable. But then random things trip me up. I’ll be having a conversation with my friend/coworker and then just randomly clam up at a random question like “what did you have for breakfast?” I’ll like stammer and instinctively avoid the question because it catches me off guard and I have mega anxieties about feeling judged or rejected. But most of the time I’m fine lol. I even have talked about a lot of incredibly personal things with her! Yet I still do this on occasion with random basic things hahaha!

There was this one time where I got to attend a conference for work in a nice hotel. The first night I got there, I was so hungry and I was freaking out because I didn’t know how to find the hotel restaurant and it was the only thing open late. I asked the person at the check in desk where it was and they gave me general directions. I just for the life of me could not figure it out and could not bring myself to ask anyone else. I was straight up panicking. I went up to the hotel room and thought maybe I’ll just order room service but I was continuing to panic from earlier and couldn’t bring myself to call and try to figure out how to do that. I was so fucking starving but my terror of unknown social situations was preventing me from fucking eating of all things. I cried for like 20 minutes in the hotel room.

Then I mustered up the courage to go back downstairs and look for the restaurant again. Turns out it was outside and that’s why I couldn’t figure it out earlier. Had dinner and felt totally fine and comfortable and relieved. I interacted very normally with the wait staff!

It’s just random things like that. A lot of things go along find but then random things will put me in a panic for dumb reasons lol.

Almost any kind of novel traveling with exceptions.

E.g. taking the bus to/from work: fine, nice even.

E.g. driving to a shops: fine.

E.g. going on overnight holiday with family to visit other family: unreasonably irritable and cantankerous.

A few years back I was having recurring panic attacks, and my body’s “fight or flight” would kick off over the slightest thing, or nothing at all.

At the time I was keeping a sort of “panic incident journal” to try and track any potential causes etc. This is one of my favourite entries:

“I am oversensitive - a stair creaks and I am fully alert and prepared to defend myself from inanimate objects”

Aside from that, I wouldn’t even know where to start with listing all the silly minor things that cause disproportionate increased anxiety in me.

I would say when there is nothing, your body is just misfiring for no apparent reason

Changes in barometric pressure.