10 Examples of Everyday Situations With Which Socially Anxious People Struggle

James finds it difficult to answer telephone calls. Each time the phone rings, even if it's from a caller he knows and is comfortable with, he screens it to determine whether or not he actually needs to call back.

Kelly has been out of work for three months. She sits down with her laptop at her local coffee shop each morning and breezily submits applications. Despite being a highly-qualified accountant, and receiving many requests for interviews, she finds it much more comfortable to sit down and submit the applications rather than accept and show up. The few times she has accepted interview requests she did not show up.

Marcus loves his morning mocha latte. The Starbucks near his house makes a great one, so he enjoys stopping there each morning on the way to work. However, lately, he's been seeing the same barista at the register each day. This makes him anxious, as Marcus feels much more comfortable being anonymous in public. In this way, he does not have to engage in too much small talk or allow someone to get to know him too well, which is uncomfortable. In response, he starts skipping that Starbucks location and seeks out other ones, even when they are out of the way.

Lola broke up with her last boyfriend two years ago. They had dated since high school, so she has never experienced the dating world as an adult in her mid-20s. For the last two years, Lola has been interested in meeting new people to date; however, the thought of getting someone's number, or giving her number to someone, let alone actually talking on the phone with a stranger or meeting me for a date makes her feel stressed. To avoid this discomfort, she simply opts out of meeting people to date altogether, even though it's what she wants.

Miguel is not comfortable with communication. Not just talking with people, but even writing them. He's afraid he'll say something that will be misunderstood, and this possibility, however remote, causes him a lot of anxiety. So, he limits the responses he provides to text and email messages, sometimes to the point of not responding to urgent work requests.

Jim started his new IT job four months ago. During that time, he has avoided connecting with any of his coworkers, as socializing with people he does not know causes him stress. He avoids breaks or even leaving his cubicle as much as possible to avoid running into people who might want to start a conversation. In turn, Jim's coworkers have stopped asking him out to lunch, which he never accepts, and decided that he's a snob.

Brian is a fun-loving guy. He has a lot of friends and he loves to go out to parties on the weekends. However, none of his friends are particularly close to him. While he finds it easy to make friends, they tend to be more superficial. One reason is that he does not feel comfortable letting anyone get to know him too well, and this is exemplified in his struggle to maintain eye contact during conversations. It literally feels painful to try to make eye contact when he's talking. He's afraid people will get to know him too well, or see him as a fraud.

Camilla has many friends from college, but since they graduated five years ago she has lost touch with all of them. It all started innocently enough. She would receive Facebook or text messages asking how she was doing, and she would sometimes respond and other times ignore them. She felt a weight that was overwhelming when trying to keep these close ties together. It caused her anxiety, so she slowly stopped keeping in touch altogether.

Carrie loves to go shopping. It doesn't matter what it is - groceries, new clothes, or just browsing around REI for things she would love to eventually buy. But she makes it a point to only visit these places first thing in the morning when they open. Typically, there are few if any people there at this time. When she goes during the day, these stores have a lot more crowds and that makes Carrie incredibly anxious. Having space away from people is comforting, so she often completely rearranges her schedule to shop only in the morning.

Bryce's job in sales often puts him on the road traveling to various stores and trade shows. During these travels, he is to meet with store managers, salespersons, and other vendors to make presentations. While Bryce is a friendly, affable person, he gets extremely uncomfortable as soon as any conversation's focus shifts to him. Of course, during a presentation, the entire focus is on him. His experiences making such presentations eventually stress him so much that he begins to skip planned meetings and trips, causing him to eventually lose his job.