Hi im Reeperzz,
Ive recently come back to the game after a few months off of playing due to our guild being dead. I love the game but i mostly played it due to my friends being online but they have chosen to stop so i have found myself online by myself most times lately.
I really want to keep playing but i suffer with social anxiety disorder so pugging is impossible for me and even when joining a new guild i go through all the head space of failing and worrying that i wont play well enough ect even though i know well i hope i can play my toon to the best of my ability.
I am wondering are there any guilds out there that maybe take people like myself , i am willing to change server ect , im just wondering if there are more out there like me. cheers if you can let me know thanks:)
Following as interested too
Have a look there i hope it helps.
Thank you very much for the info 
really depends on what you’re looking to do.
if you want to join a guild and get friends with people and do random stuff I could talk with my GM and you’ll be welcome, and I could help you out with DK stuff since DKs should always stick together 
if you want to idk, get cutting edge or whatever then I dont really have much power here.
so elaborate more and ill see if I can help :))
idk, am no expert and don’t want to sound too smart for my own good, but what you described, fear of not being good enough…i don’t really think that’s social anxiety or idk…
I think that’s kinda normal for everyone that decides they will do something “seriously”.
idk just a thought, best of luck!
Its not fear of not being good enough its fear of joining groups at all i havent left the house in months. I find it extremely hard to connect with others failure is always a huge thing but the slightest thing can set me off.
Just connect - what worse gonna happen?? If you enjoy with people u play in pug - continue with them; if not then just leave them.
Best way to remove fear is face it.
I wish it was that easy i have massive panic attacks when i even think of doing it. Raiding mythic plus ect has become impossible due to that . I never thought my anxiety would bleed onto the game but it has 
Start by joining waterfronts, everyone is AFK in there anyways. Jokes aside this is what I would recommend. There is little to no interactions in warfronts so you might even find yourself thinking that you are playing with bots. Then next spiro is random heroic dungeons. Maybe sometimes people say hello, usually they don’t. That’s also like playing with bots. Move onto next thing and so on forth.
It is easy to say than do 
You cant imagine what kind of thought passing in someone head. How is that feeling… No one is same, we all r different in some way.
Yeah agree but we have to face it if we get rid of it.
Facing is one thing but making progress is something different. Sometime people don’t have strength to make first step or don’t know how. It is harder if you live in environment who don’t get you ,don’t give support. Ugly experience, trauma can make things worse even if you have desire to push yourself to forward. That’s sensible very and for this kind of disorder you need to be patient and surrounded with people who cares and have time for you.
I’m sorry, but this is the only type of response that annoys me to no end. I suffer from Anxiety and Depression, and one of the biggest things that NEVER HELPS is someone saying “just do it” or “stop worrying”. It’s like “WOW, you solved my whole dilemma with that remark, go you!”
This isn’t an attack on you, I understand that if you don’t deal with things like this, it can be really difficult to understand. This is more of a “Something to avoid saying in the future as it could really upset someone” type thing.
Now, for the OP. As I mentioned before, I suffer from Anxiety and Depression, to the point it completely affects my real life. I feel weak ALL the time because of it. I can’t even spend time with my family as much as I want, because it mentally and physically drains me.
But, I was rather lucky, I was invited into the guild I am in right now, and it’s become a home to me. I spent WEEKS playing with them, worrying each raid if I was a bad player, worried they didn’t like me, felt I got in the way, barely ever spoke in voice chat with them. But, they stood by me, every step of the way, and I started to feel more comfortable around them.
Now, because of this guild, I don’t feel scared anymore. Granted, I still panic every raid night. I’ll give you my most recent example, might cheer you up a little ![:stuck_out_tongue:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue.png?v=6" ":stuck_out_tongue:")
Whilst raiding, we were on Stormwall. I had my DBM quite loud (Scared that I’m gonna mess something up, so if it’s blaring in my ears, I KNOW I won’t miss it), and a guildy mentioned something about how they could hear it as well, and that it distracted them.
Just them saying this sent me into panic mode, and so I muted my mic and sat in silence for the rest of the raid. Now, usually I would have ran the moment the raid was other (Didn’t want to let anyone down by leaving sooner, so I stuck around (Basically more fear)). And yet, the whole time I was muted, several of my guild mates kept speaking to me, keeping my spirits as high as possible, telling me it wasn’t my fault, and keeping me away from my thoughts.
I’m sure the guild I’m in will be fine with taking you in, I’ll have a word with the GM about it tomorrow (As it’s really late right now).
But, I will say this one thing, and this usually helps me (kinda). You’re not alone, and you never will be alone. There are millions of people in this world that struggle, including myself. I don’t go out (But am trying my best to change this), I barely eat, I barely sleep, I just don’t function “properly”. And yet, I’ve found a place where I’m starting to really feel like I belong. If I can find a place like this, anyone can.
If you wish to have more of a chat about this, you’re more than welcome to either add me on:
Discord: Shortbolts#9004
Battlenet: Bubblebutt#21908
Believe me, it doesn’t work this way I have fear of various things irl and I did face it, and guess what, next time I attempt the activity, the fear is there and is the same.
Regarding worrying that we are not good enough, I have this too. Combine this with the toxicity of pugs, and you get the picture. If someone is worried that he’s a bad player and keeps getting words like “u suck”, “retard”, “leave this game” etc. the anxiety becomes worse, to a degree that he might want to not go there at all anymore.
OP: I found a solution for myself, maybe it might work for you too. It’s to accept one’s limitations. The game is not a job where you have to perfom at your best. Why force ourselves to improve in game if we suffer from anxiety and the thought “now I must perform well enough” makes us tremble? I just play to my abilities and if I fail I smile and try to approach it with humor.
Of course it doesn’t work in pugs. I only pug low lvl dungeons where I can’t fail. For other stuff, I play with bnet friends or solo, and I warn them that I am not a very good player and might (rather, will) make mistakes. Still was mocked by the so called friends once…sadly. But I moved on.
I do not play with people to which to fail at mechanic means the end of the world. So my advice - just seek like-minded casuals. People for which your failures will not matter. That way you’ll feel relaxed enough, will feel accepted for who you are and will be able to play together and have fun.
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.
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.
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).
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)…
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.