social anxiety before some american invented the internet

[Between The Bars]

social anxiety before some american invented the internet thread

it was only in recent years that i found support sites for nutcases like me. before that i was in no mans land. i used to watch the lethal weapon trilogy every night on VHS.

how do you think people coped before the internet?

&

how did you cope before you found support sites?

[Mr Ploppy]

I endlessly watched videos & tv, planned what i'd do when I was "better", wasted my life.

[TommyGun]

I only started using the Internet less than 2 years ago,and I've had SA/Agoraphobia/PTSD for many years,unfortunately for me it hasnt helped,infact I feel worse now than when I joined this site almost a year ago.

[JazzGuy]

Wasnt it a british guy who invented the internet?

I used to smoke weed, watch tv and read the lord of the rings over and over.

[Mr. Nobody]

Originally Posted by Mr Ploppy

I endlessly watched videos & tv, planned what i'd do when I was "better", wasted my life.

me too

[Mr Ploppy]

Originally Posted by Jerry302199

me too

Now I know that "better" is a lot of crap and i'm still wasting my life. I may have been better off still living the lie.

[firemonkey]

Before the internet i used to watch more tv and do a lot of music taping. Now i spent much of my time on online support forums like this.

[clawhammer.]

Originally Posted by AuroraSky

I got into the internet from relatively early when it was readily available (around 1995 or so, using a 28.8kps modem, paying local call rates to dial up which got expensive).

I first went online in 1994 using a 9.6kps modem - it took forever to download web pages and cost a small fortune.

Pre-Internet, I used to listen to a lot of agony aunt shows on the radio. I hadn't yet heard of social anxiety, but always listened to those shows hoping I would one day hear someone phone up with a problem similar to mine.

I never had the balls to phone the agony aunt shows, but sometimes posted letters instead. I've still got old tape recordings of people like Anna Raeburn (Capital Radio) and Phillip Hodson (LBC) reading my letters on air and dishing out their advice to me.

[Paper_Samurai]

Originally Posted by clawhammer.

I first went online in 1994 using a 9.6kps modem - it took forever to download web pages and cost a small fortune.

Pre-Internet, I used to listen to a lot of agony aunt shows on the radio. I hadn't yet heard of social anxiety, but always listened to those shows hoping I would one day hear someone phone up with a problem similar to mine.

I never had the balls to phone the agony aunt shows, but sometimes posted letters instead. I've still got old tape recordings of people like Anna Raeburn (Capital Radio) and Phillip Hodson (LBC) reading my letters on air and dishing out their advice to me.

What did they say ? (dare I ask)

[Mr Ploppy]

The original Talk Radio was a bit of a lifesaver for me in the wee small hours.

[itschris]

But the Internet was invented in the Sixties and Social Anxiety wasn't invented until the Eighties

[firemonkey]

Originally Posted by itschris

But the Internet was invented in the Sixties and Social Anxiety wasn't invented until the Eighties

The symptoms of social anxiety have been around much longer than there has been a specific, clinical, name for it.
Symptoms that would later be defined as 'social anxiety' certainly pre-date the internet by many years.

[schneebeli]

Originally Posted by clawhammer.

Phillip Hodson advised me to contact the Tavistock Clinic in London (now called the Tavistock & Portman). Anna Raeburn advised me to leave home!

Sounds like good advice from both. Phillip Hodson used to be on Going Live! didn't he. I still only get about 20 kbps on my mobile connection

I found out about SA/SP in 1995 and didn't get much internet access before 2000. I used to get self-help books from the library or buy them, usually regretting it shortly afterwards...

[Ruby1]

I was addicted to Teletext and had a very special relationship with Richard and his lovely wife Judy ;-)

[Memory]

I only really properly started using the internet when I was about 14/15 (so 2004/2005). Before that, fortunately I was young and played outside with my siblings and neighbours a lot. Kinda grew out of that when I was 13 (or around then) so I read a lot, wrote, watched TV, and homework obviously occupied me. I also went to a youth club and a drama club. Reading was the main thing though. My social anxiety (which only discovered how to label it since May/June this year) has got worse as I've been getting older. So yeah, internet<3

[Dandelion10]

Americans didn't invent the internet!

I found out what I had only in 2010 when I looked up anxiety disorders, no therapist/psychiatrist had previously diagnosed me.

Before that I still did social things but didn't see them through.

Then I began using these sites and couldn't believe how alike some issues were to mine.

I still would have coped without these sites because I'd have to but it's definately better that they're here.

[piesJoy]

Originally Posted by Mr Ploppy

The original Talk Radio was a bit of a lifesaver for me in the wee small hours.

Ceaser the geezer, and wild Al kelly. Those where the days!

The original talk radio was great, shame it folded......

[ponder]

Originally Posted by JazzGuy

Wasnt it a british guy who invented the internet?

No, that was the world wide web (Tim Berners Lee). The internet was a DARPA (US military thing) project, though of course other people were working on computer networking around the same time.

Usually for inventions you find that lots of people were working in the area but someone got to a landmark position first, so they get the credit. But the internet technology we're now using certainly originated in the US.

And before the internet... I played with computers with no internet connection
Or BBS systems, which had the advantage of locality, you could conveniently meet the people from them. They were much less powerful than the internet, but had much more of a community feel.