Social anxiety disorder

Community General Discussion
16

I have social anxiety aswell and I’m also hyper sensitive so when someone says something mean in game it can ruin my mood for the rest of the day.
Anyways, my solution in M+ PUGs (the only content I still do) is to turn off all chat when the run starts.
It’s not ideal but it works for me, I’m having fun.
I don’t know how you could even consider joining a guild with social anxiety, for me that’s completely off the table.
Good luck bro.

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17

Paranoid on Emerald Dream-Terenas.

At least they used to be for this purpose. It started off on these forums some years ago. They are still active. I’m on the same server.

18

I don’t think you’ve had anxiety, if you think this is is normal.

Anxiety gives irrational physical reactions way above nervousity and fear that everyone experience.

Yes, completely broken down into simplicity anxiety is battled by facing fears, but it is a very long process that has to be dealt with step by step. Many with attacks get complete black outs, meaning you lose all body control and aren’t able to understand what you are standing in(making the attempt at facing your fears void as you aren’t really there mentally - your body literally shut down).

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19

Sounds very familiar to me. When someone criticizes me in a rude way for failing, I feel this. Also I call it a “fight-or-flight” response. It’s always the “flight”, I leave that situation and take measures to not go back to places where it might happen again (like M+ pugs, etc). IMO this is also practically better than try to fight with it. How? Blizzard doesn’t care to put better control over people’s bad behaviour, so knowing this I prefer to avoid this aspect of the game.

btw we had to play together with you if I remember, I will poke you next time you’re free (hopefully)…

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20

With all seriousness - quit WoW. This game should be a nice little supplement to a good life - not life itself. Go out there, swallow the frog, and make it a mission to approach 10 strangers a day. This will be your recipe to get yourself back into a positive feedback loop that will obliterate that anxiety. Trust me, and at least give it a chance. WoW could wait for when you fix the problem at its core.

21

To the OP, you might find this thread helpful:

Although the starting post may not be exactly what you’re experiencing, the discussion that follows contains posts that you might find helpful.

Best of luck to you. :smiley:

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22

One way to beat social anxiety is to think of the grave, at the end we are all gonna turn into skeleton somehow and some might choose to be cremated, thats up to you.

You see, at the end nothing matters, you will die and i will die. No need to fear people.

23

Also ignore all the ignorant people telling you to just get over it, they clearly have never suffered from any mental health issues at all.

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24

Thank you!!!

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25

Forget those cheap “remember you’re amazing in your own skin!” psyche-acrobatics. Approach 10 strangers a day - for a month - (that’s 300 approaches!), and see how you feel. If you can’t do 10 - do 5. If you can’t do 5 - do 1. But get into the habit. Set a daily goal. Then you’ll see that socializing is less scary than you thought. What do you have to lose?

26

No offence, but you obviously have never had the kinds of issues the OP, and others, have if you think it’s that easy to fix.

But this is also off topic, the OP has asked for in-game help with playing with like-minded players in a guild, not help with real life issues…

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27

I know what you mean there mate. Suffer from that myself and it sucks when I feel uncomfortable to leave the house.
You would be surprised how many of us there are here with some kind of anxiety.
I do not ever mention ingame though and I defo do not use a head set.
I found wow to be a great past time when I get a flare up. I hope you get the teams and adventures that you are looking for. I find adrenalin that i get from playing some times helps my anxiety levels go to normal. Adrenalin being used correctly for once :slight_smile:

28

Thank you Dotsoffun and others for the replies. I used not being good enough as an example of one of the things that goes through my head if i try to pug or raid, LFR ect. When i go into a group my adrenaline kicks in massively i start to shake, feel sick, panic and in some cases total breaking down.
It takes ages for me to be able to talk on discord ect normally i just sit there silent while my partner talks on my behalf till i can find my feet.

It effects my real life greatly due to not being able to leave the house or meet new people with out a huge mental and physical reaction, i have tried graded exposure but that did not work as each time i left the house i still had the same reaction i become completely overloaded being there and after a few minutes would have to retreat to my house.
And currently i don’t leave the house for months at a time and when i do my partner comes with me and that’s just the social aspect.

As far as approaching strangers on a daily basis just the overload from the outside world alone let alone getting outside, walking up and trying to talk to someone that i do not know would be impossible and also the fact that no one would appreciate being approached by someone shaking, sweating and looking like they are having a meltdown and where i’m from that would end up in either an extremely awkward hello or me being punched in the face or worse, times have changed you cant just walk up to people this day and age and say hello anymore.

As i said i love the game and a lot of the time its the one thing i can do when my head is bad i just put my headphones on and i can block out the outside world but due to friends not playing anymore i now find my self struggling as that group has gone and pugging is a big no no for me.
I guess i was just wondering if there are others out there like myself and if any guilds out there take people with anxiety on.

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29

Please don’t feel the need to explain yourself to these people. They simply won’t understand and it will cause you undue stress.

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30

I have social phobia myself (and aspergers). There are so much in this game i would like to do but can’t, that some people take for granted. I want to raid, do dungeons, warfronts, island expeditions, anything social. I have tried a little of these things but i need a friend to go with me, i never queue up for anything alone, it’s just too scary.

Im following this because i need to find a guild myself. I have my main in a great guild, but problem is they play on a crowded server (horde draenor) so i can’t play much there. I simply can’t relax there, so i play on rp servers. It’s harder to find guilds on rp servers but there are less people there. Maybe it could be something for you too? You don’t have to rp (i don’t), just respect those who do. It’s just a tip. :wink:

As for Paranoid on Emerald Dream, that someone mentioned. I can’t suggest joining that. I was there. Because of my severe anxiety i got ptsd from what they did to me. Sorry, i had to say something when i saw that guild name here.

Good luck in your guild hunting! I hope we both find something. :smiley:

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31

Hi,

IRL, part of my job is to prepare students to speak in front of a jury.

For those who find it hard, I sometimes recommend to create a persona. The word comes from latin and means to speak through a mask, as did the actors in antiquity.

This may allow you to create a double who is able to deal with questions, criticism or hostility. It worked for some students.

We are in a RPG game, I think it might be a good place to try the trick with strangers you could meet. This could give you the opportunity to judge if they are worthy of becoming your friends and get to know the real you.

Also, remember that any criticism is not automatically justified. The others can be wrong. And they certainly are when they trash talk.

I hope you’ll find a way to cope and wish you the best.

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32

I’m the same, except that I live alone. I don’t have someone to “fall on” so to speak, and so I rarely go out of my house. My upside is, I have an amazing family. Everyone that drives in my family are ALWAYS willing to come and get me from where I live and take me where I want. I can’t do anything outside on my own, so I always have someone else there, because it kinda helps. It get’s my mind off of “strangers staring at me all the time” since I’m always in deep conversation with whoever I’m with.
I’ve set myself a goal of going down to my families house once a week, every Sunday (Since my mom runs a business and Sunday is her only day off). I’ve only just started doing this, and since it’s tomorrow, I didn’t get any sleep last night, and probably won’t tonight either because I’m so on edge about it all.

Agreed. That “solution” was a bad one given by someone who doesn’t understand how it actually feels. It’s something that would rarely ever work, so trying to do it will cause more harm than anything. If you don’t mind me asking, how often do you speak to your partner? Or their family? It might be good to try and speak to them as much as you can. Slowly at first and build in to it. Talking to people you know about anything can help.

Again, I was the same. In real life, all I have around me is family, and they’re busy nearly all the time, so I spend a lot of time with a “persona” online. I try to be different, try to hide behind the screen as much as possible.
Before Christmas, I had friends and I played Alliance, but things went badly and they all walked away from me (After they said they wouldn’t, like so many others that say it).

That’s the biggest thing that bothers and upsets me. Most people who don’t know how it affects us, or what may happen, always say “I’ll be there for you no matter what” but then instantly skip out the moment you have a bad day and the anger get’s the best of you. It’s happened to me all my life, to the point I have no in real life friends. Sure, I have some people to talk too, but only when they need something. My problems and me being human isn’t something they think about.

There is always a place for anyone in this game, it’s just finding that place you feel you belong. I know it can be difficult, trust me. I spent from WoD till near the end of Legion playing solo, because I couldn’t deal with people. I barely did any multiplayer content. But, I got bored and felt I HAD to do something, or quit the game.

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33

I actually have,

34

What exactly are you looking for? A social guild or somewhere to raid? And if raiding, what level of raiding are you looking for etc?

35

Well, I’m sorry mate, but your answers say otherwise

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