I'm shy and anxious and I need help!

[Just2shy]

Man I got issues with myself I have been shy for most of my life. I'm 26 yrs. old and losing my patience. I believe I have depression and social anxiety all together and its the worst feeling in the world! I'm constantly worrying about things I shouldn't be worrying about, suicidal thoughts(yikes
!), feelings of hopelessness, loss of interest in activities I used to enjoy. Well I try to do things I enjoy to not think about my situation but sometimes I have to force myself to enjoy activities. I tried several antidepressants and one of them really worked(Paxil) but had sexual side effects and I didn't like that so I stopped taking it. The thing is I don't want to rely on a drug to make me happy. Sometimes I think to myself that I'm better off dead so that way I don't have to suffer anymore

Regarding social situations, I don't have a lot of friends today. When I was in middle and high school I did but that was it. I did have my own group of friends but they were all drug addicts and so I had to leave them. When it comes to being around relatives I'm still shy. When it comes to meeting new people man do I get uncomfortable and end up not talking and avoiding them. Then that leads to me being angry at myself for being a failure .

I need to solve this problem in order to get on with my life and enjoy it or else I might end up dead! I need all the help I can get. Sorry for such a long post.

[wagnerr]

Long posts are the norm, here, for some people. Don't worry about it.

As for SA medications, yeah, they work but have lots of side effects, i know. I was taking Effexcor for a while, but it really made me really sleepy all the time. Now i just try to deal with the SA and not take anything.

Hey, man, i lost a lot of my friends in college too, but i've made new friends at work. Maybe you could try making friends at work.

Just hang in there. Many of us are like this too. As for getting depressed, well, all i can say is try to stay busy; business makes you feel like you're worth something, you know?

[Just2shy]

Yeah I gotta get my mind of being depressed. I ended up yelling at my girlfriend because I was so angry at myself! And now I regret it

I think I made some good friends at work and they really like me.

I joined this forum today because I felt so down after going to my cousins party last night. When I went there there were a lot of people including my cousins friends. I was really not used to big groups like that and that got me scared of socializing with anyone. The feeling really sucked.

[Just2shy]

I was actually thinkin about changing my SN. Sounds too harsh. So how do I change it?

[Just2shy]

Is this SN better?