3 ms·

I'm pretty confident it isn't social anxiety. I'm great at talking to people I'm comfortable with, almost to a point that I love socializing with them. With peo

I'm pretty confident it isn't social anxiety. I'm great at talking to people I'm comfortable with, almost to a point that I love socializing with them. With people that I've just met, however, it's different.

saghm 9y ago
I can relate a lot to what you've described; I've always felt uncomfortable in large social gatherings, especially with people I'm not familiar with. When interning at the company I work full-time at now, I knew of several interns who acted like you described (i.e. getting lunch with random coworkers from different departments), and I never felt comfortable to do the same. In my experience as an intern, it matters more to make connections with your mentors/teammates who you're working with over the course of your internship, since they're the ones who'll be providing the majority of the meaningful feedback that determines whether you get a return offer. That being said, it can be worth going out of your comfort zone sometimes! Meeting new people is something that will happen a lot over the course of your career, so my advice would be to focus on making a good impression when you do happen to meet new people rather than going out of your way to make a bunch of connections. Barring a toxic work environment, you'll do fine as long as you have a good relationship with your teammates and immediate superior and don't actively alienate anyone else. (For what it's worth, I've seen quite a few threads like this that seem to get responses saying that the OP has such and such psychological condition; it kind of astounds me how so many people a feel that it's prudent to provide a stranger with unsolicited medical diagnoses based on a couple paragraphs they posted on the internet. You're under no obligation to respond to them, so feel free to disregard them if you'd prefer to.)
- fromtheshadows 9y ago
  Thank you for your advice! I definitely try my best to have genuine conversations and connections with my teammates and will continue to do so. I was kind of surprised by the many comments saying I suffer from social anxiety, but I figured their lack of information about me lead to their diagnoses. So, I hope they think otherwise after my responses and instead provide great advice like yours.
twobyfour 9y ago
That's a very common manifestation of social anxiety.
wingerlang 9y ago
Maybe, maybe not. Your rebuttal doesn't really make sense as a defence though. If you are OK with people you know, but not ok with new people - that sounds more like it would strengthen the "social anxiety diagnose". However I am sure it is not introversion. Introversion is not related to social interaction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#Introversion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#... Don't get me wrong. I can see myself very much in your description, almost to a tee. My point is just that I think you are mistaken in your definition of introversion, and that you should read up on it and the common mistake of thinking it is the same as e.g. shyness etc.

saghm 9y ago

I can relate a lot to what you've described; I've always felt uncomfortable in large social gatherings, especially with people I'm not familiar with. When interning at the company I work full-time at now, I knew of several interns who acted like you described (i.e. getting lunch with random coworkers from different departments), and I never felt comfortable to do the same. In my experience as an intern, it matters more to make connections with your mentors/teammates who you're working with over the course of your internship, since they're the ones who'll be providing the majority of the meaningful feedback that determines whether you get a return offer. That being said, it can be worth going out of your comfort zone sometimes! Meeting new people is something that will happen a lot over the course of your career, so my advice would be to focus on making a good impression when you do happen to meet new people rather than going out of your way to make a bunch of connections. Barring a toxic work environment, you'll do fine as long as you have a good relationship with your teammates and immediate superior and don't actively alienate anyone else. (For what it's worth, I've seen quite a few threads like this that seem to get responses saying that the OP has such and such psychological condition; it kind of astounds me how so many people a feel that it's prudent to provide a stranger with unsolicited medical diagnoses based on a couple paragraphs they posted on the internet. You're under no obligation to respond to them, so feel free to disregard them if you'd prefer to.)

fromtheshadows 9y ago
Thank you for your advice! I definitely try my best to have genuine conversations and connections with my teammates and will continue to do so. I was kind of surprised by the many comments saying I suffer from social anxiety, but I figured their lack of information about me lead to their diagnoses. So, I hope they think otherwise after my responses and instead provide great advice like yours.

twobyfour 9y ago

That's a very common manifestation of social anxiety.

wingerlang 9y ago

Maybe, maybe not. Your rebuttal doesn't really make sense as a defence though. If you are OK with people you know, but not ok with new people - that sounds more like it would strengthen the "social anxiety diagnose". However I am sure it is not introversion. Introversion is not related to social interaction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#Introversion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraversion_and_introversion#... Don't get me wrong. I can see myself very much in your description, almost to a tee. My point is just that I think you are mistaken in your definition of introversion, and that you should read up on it and the common mistake of thinking it is the same as e.g. shyness etc.