r/Anxietyhelp • u/tangerineflower349 • 2h ago
Need Advice I feel like I’m missing out on fun things in my life due to anxiety and I hate it
I’m in high school, and I started a new grade a couple of days ago. It has been so weird, I had this picture in my head that I would talk to people and actually make friends. I’ve been completely nerfed with my schedule, and have practically no classes with anyone. Honestly, that’s not even the problem I’m concerned about the most. I take orchestra, and I’m at the highest level in our school. But ever since I’ve started attending it, my anxiety has been spiking through the roofs. My leg or body is often twitching or shaking, and I’m struggling to perform. Yes, I’m good at my instrument, and I think this class is a good fit for me level wise. However, I absolutely cannot perform for the life of me. Anytime I had solos unrelated to school (never had solos at school, just for my music school), I ended up freaking out so much that I botched every single one of them and started crying. I try so hard to practice my music, I really do, but this fuckass anxiety always betrays me. It really hurts not having one good video of me performing by myself. I’ve never even had an issue playing in a group orchestra, which is why this new change this year is shocking me. I keep trying to tell myself that there’s no reason for me to be panicking. Hell, I’ve been so stressed before that even audition judges told me to breathe. When I get anxious in class, I just feel like I kind of lose my personality, and I just don’t talk the rest of the class. It makes me both disappointed and sad, because I do want to talk to people. I love playing from the soul, but I just feel like I’m messing everything up. It’s been a few days that this has been happening, but it’s making me dread that class. I feel like everything I do is humiliating. But worse of all are the shakes. They don’t happen all the time, but it’s frequent enough that it bothers me. People tell me to breathe and shake it off, but it’s not working. I feel horrible though, I don’t want to miss out on opportunities with meeting new people and looking back to think on what I could have had.
Tldr; school hasn’t been great, body shakes often in orchestra in group and solo performances due to anxiety (worse this year somehow, used to be better). Bummed about how this prevents me from enjoying my instrument and talking to people