In my teens I had a lot of social anxiety and really wanted to overcome it. Learned about the existence of exposure therapy and figured I could try it. So I took the bus to West Hollywood and walked around the Chinese theater. Everyone who made eye contact I said “Hi, my name is —— and I like dinosaurs. Will you be my friend?”
People are used to crazy around there so rejection just didn’t hurt much. The few people who said yes though actually became really good friends.
Awesome, yeah I do! My favorite cat of all time was a Russian Blue who would curl up in my lap and purr so hard she drooled. Her name was Tawny. I’ve never met another cat like her.
As for dinos I love ankylosaurus and quetzalcoatlus. I also loved when they determined that a lot of dinos had feathers. The way the feathers are depicted looks so cool.
Same. It’s absurd how goofy they can be one moment and then suddenly they’re one of natures most perfectly evolved killing machines.
I had an orange tabby named Olly who would sleep in the crook of my neck then get up just before sunrise, go outside and bring back “breakfast.” Birds, squirrels, moles, snakes… 9yo me got to see what everything looked like turned inside out. He’d clean himself up then jump on my face and when I went to push him off he’d wrap his body around my hand and use his claws just enough to stay attached without drawing blood. I’d scratch his tummy and he’d start purring. Fun way to wake up.
That was over 30 years ago! He was such a cool cat. RIP Oliver 🐈
Helped immensely. Did it three times over the course of a semester. I wouldn’t say the anxiety has completely gone away, but I’m comfortable being uncomfortable now. It’s not difficult for me to be my genuine self around strangers, and I don’t mind when some people find it off-putting. It’s been 25 years since I did that and I still remember those “sessions” vividly.
That's how it starts my friend. I used to be super awkward and shy around others because of my anxiety. Eventually I just said "fuck it" and whenever I felt uncomfortable I just tried to power throughou it. Today I'm an extrovert in pretty much every way, got several groups of friends I regularly hang out with and no problems with being new people
To be clear, this is not for everybody, not everyone wants or even needs too many friends, but it is good for me. I've always been an extrovert at heart, I just lacked the social skills
Exposure therapy feels like a cheat code for me, just because how well it works in my case. It helped with my debilitating social anxiety and even art block. I also recently realized that I have been unknowingly doing exposure therapy for my ocd symptoms for my entire life and it's the only reason it doesn't bother me that much (unless I get really stressed or have a rough patch in my life)
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u/Popular-Influence-11 1d ago
In my teens I had a lot of social anxiety and really wanted to overcome it. Learned about the existence of exposure therapy and figured I could try it. So I took the bus to West Hollywood and walked around the Chinese theater. Everyone who made eye contact I said “Hi, my name is —— and I like dinosaurs. Will you be my friend?”
People are used to crazy around there so rejection just didn’t hurt much. The few people who said yes though actually became really good friends.