Hello (Again?)

Sloppyjag · #1 24th June 2012, 22:45

Hello,

My name is Stephen and I'll be 45 this year.

In 2003, my dad gave me his old PC and using it I started to search for answers to the problems I had encountered my entire life - shyness, loneliness and utter frustration. That search led me to discover a possible name for what I was encountering, Social Phobia or Social Anxiety, and to a website called Social Anxiety UK. Through its discussion forum, IRC chatroom and fantastic members, and even finding the courage to go to a couple of meets, I gained some understanding of what I was suffering and was able find a way of living with my social ineptitude, if not actually curing it. In those days I was known as Slopps. (Waves hopefully!)

That search for answers came at a particularly dark crossroads in my life and again I find myself at another junction (or more like a cul-de-sac!) I came looking for familiarity and, at first, I was disappointed. Where were my old friends? Was this even the same site? But as I read thread after thread, post after post, story after story, I realised it didn't matter. These were the same people. The same heartaches, the same supportive voices, the same humour in the face of adversity.

I've spent most of today trying to write an introduction to myself which wasn't Tolstoyesque in length. I'm sure my story will emerge in time. In many ways it is similar to some here but also unique in other respects. It is why the spectrum of social anxiety/phobia is so wide and difficult to understand or define and subsequently treat. My own search has led to so many brick walls and false dawns but there have been successes too.

So if there are any SA-UK 2003-05 members here, Hello Again.

If not, I'm sure you'll all be just as fantastic!!

Lotsa love,

Stephen/Sloppyjag/the artist formerly known as Slopps