Goat

Can confirm.

Source: is goat.

Maybe it would be useful to think of learning the skill of socializing while anxious as a little like learning the skill of ice skating.

Can you teach yourself ice skating from scratch? Maybe, it’s possible to just use pure trial and error and figure it out for yourself with no guidance or feedback. It might become frustrating and the temptation might be to give up because it seems impossible, and takes forever to even get the basics down, if that ever happens at all.

But what if you had an ice skating manual and youtube videos? Probably better than purely figuring it out on your own. But what if you have a question in the moment as you are, for example, trying to skate backwards? How should your left leg move if you have a soar right knee, or what happens if you keep spinning to the left whenever you try to turn right, or your ankles are soar after every practice and you aren’t sure if the type of skates you bought are really the best for your own body, experience, and needs?

If these questions arise, you could read the manual, go on youtube, ask the community. But then there are different opinions, bias, misinformation. Who to trust? How many hours do you want to spend researching a question when an expert could tell you there in the moment in like 2 seconds? What if you have 25 questions? How many days and weeks of research is that? Or could an expert answer all of them in like half an hour?

So skating coaches are not mandatory, but very strongly encouraged ;)

Yes! Mine is like “big question” stuff. Philosophy, religion, psychology, etc.

There’s an inexhaustible amount of ideas to explore, so there is some variability. But as much as I read, I have not read fiction in like 20 years. No other hobbies, etc.

Luckily I found my way to psychology so I can practice in that area (mainly with struggles I have been through from the inside-out) and even provide “consultation,” i.e. getting paid to have a willingly captive audience listen to me info-dump about my special interest.

Mu hu ha ha ha.

One option might be finding a neurodiversity-celebrating (or at least affirming) therapist who does “exposure therapy” for social anxiety, and who has experience with autistic clients.

The general idea of exposure therapy is that no amount of learning without practice, and no amount of practice while NOT feeling anxious, will translate to successful performance WHILE ANXIOUS.

The evidence base is robust.

So, paradoxically, the goal is to get uncomfortable on purpose and practice socializing in that state. In small doses, with guidance (at least at first).

The first benefit is that you can socialize more even when anxious and overwhelmed… and EVENTUALLY (don’t expect immediate results) your nervous system will get the hint that socializing while anxious is ok… and then it might let you off the hook, i.e. stop making you feel so anxious.

Source: I’m a ND therapist who specializes in helping autistic clients with OCD/anxiety.

I feel nostalgic in advance for having stumbled on an inside joke that I was almost around early enough to be on the inside of but can nevertheless clearly project myself there.