Bestbuy eBooks - How To Overcome Social Anxiety.

bout attending social events?

Are your social fears interfering with you having a normal social life, school life, work life, romantic life?

I know what it's like: It's tough. I've been there. My name is Paulo Carroca, author of How to Overcome Social Anxiety, and I had social anxiety from the time I was a boy to the time I was twenty six.

And social anxiety cut my life short. I had no friends. I had no social life. I stayed home all the time. In high school I missed the prom and I never dated. I went on my first date when I was twenty?but only because the girl asked me out.

But the lowest point in my life with social anxiety took place on Tuesday October 9, 2001, when I was twenty two and in my fourth year at the University of Toronto. On that day two girls and I were to present a case study on the fast food restaurant Roy Rogers to our Management Accounting class.

On Tuesday morning I was on the subway, scared, on my way to school. A few stops before my stop?St. George Station?I started thinking about skipping the presentation. I can?t go through with this, I thought. But then I thought about the girls. I don?t want to abandon them. I don?t want to leave them hanging. What do I do?

As the subway pulled into St. George Station I was still unsure about what to do: To go or not to go. The subway stopped, the doors opened. I had just seconds to decide, as the doors would soon close. I was shaking.

And a few seconds later the doors closed and the subway pulled out of St. George station?taking me with it.

Later in the day, I emailed one of the girls, writing ?personal reasons? as my excuse for missing the presentation. She emailed me back hours later and her email felt sympathetic. She wrote that she was sorry for whatever personal reasons had caused me to miss the presentation and hoped it wasn't anything serious.

And to my relief she wrote that the presentation took place and that it went well: At about a half hour before the presentation the two girls realized I was a no show?we had planned to meet two hours before the presentation to prepare?so they changed the presentation and presented without me. I was happy for them but disgusted with myself.

I dropped out of Management Accounting after reading the email. I then remembered that my other courses for the semester were all taught in The Rotman School of Management?the same building where Management Accounting was taught.

What if the girls see me there? I thought. What if the professor sees me? What would I say? I would be so embarrassed. So to avoid a potential confrontation with the girls, with the professor, or with the girls and the professor, I dropped out of all my other courses for the semester?and the next.

On that Tuesday I finally admitted that I had a problem, a problem which was crippling my whole life?socially, professionally, romantically. On that ...

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