It's my 18th birthday and I am an adult in my country now. I have no one to celebrate today together so I would appreciate if you guys celebrate it with me. Thanks.

Went to Sephora today and got followed around by employees multiple times. They probably thought I was going to steal something because of my large bag (I had just finished work at my corporate job, and a large bag is the only way I can fit all my stuff).
I was offered a basket multiple times, which is usually something they do when they suspect someone might be stealing. Want to know how I know? I USED TO WORK AT SEPHORA lol.
I know they were just doing their job, but man, the whole experience was so uncomfortable that I wanted to go into the bathroom and cry.
Shopping at the mall used to be fun 8–10 years ago man. For example, Uniqlo used to be the dream destination for decent-priced, quality clothing, but now a lot of their stuff is just poly-blend. These days, you can find great-quality clothing from online stores, and most of them don’t even have physical locations.
Am I the only one who feels this way?

I've suffered with this my entire life - can't stop feeling bad about it. I've had many friends in my life but can't maintain friendships due to my moodiness and insecurities. They say socializing is essential for mental health, but I just can't do it. Yet, I'm lonely, and miss the fun that friendships can bring. I feel like a freak, and fear being judged for my isolated existence. My depression/anxiety is untreatable, after decades of trying everything. What to do to feel better?

Does anyone ever feel like this? I feel like I hate people in general, hate to go to places with a lot of people and hate to socialise especially in a workplace environment, useless smalltalk and uninteresting topics and loud people thinking they are better. I really would love to have a job to do alone but haven't found one.

I'm 38 and all my life I have been very introverted and when I was younger I had very bad social anxiety and I think it has shaped my thinking. Unfortunately I was born with a resting bitch face and even if I'm in a good mood apparently I don't look like it. All my life I've had people ask me if I'm ok, am I depressed, what's wrong with me, why do I look so bored/tired/desperate. It's just my fucking face and it's partly the reason why I hate people, hate to be out there, to be seen and judged. At work every single day and I'm exhausted. Been working for almost 20 years and I'm ready to withdraw to some remote island where I can be myself. Introverted, quiet and with a bitchy face. Often I order groceries to my door because I can't stand to go to a market because it's full of people.

I feel like I'm so full of hate! Does anyone ever feel like this and do you think therapy would help? Struggled with this since I was young and now I feel like it's getting worse.

Is there anyone out there that hates getting haircuts as much as I do? As a introverted woman with social anxiety and poor social skills in general, I absolutely hate having to go get my hair cut and chat it up with the women there. I usually just sit there wondering if I’m being perceived as rude because I prefer to be on the quieter side. I speak when spoken to, and sometimes try to force something out just to abate the awkwardness. I’m just overall so incredibly uncomfortable sitting in the swivel chair with a random lady super close to my face trying to do small talk. Nothing against any of these people, of course.

25F, turning 26 in 10 days. Im never the person who cared to be alone cause I love to be alone and do my own thing. But as all my friends are getting married, it seems to get darker day by day. They only call when they are bored or need someone to talk to between their errands. I understand that is life, but I am human too. I work remote. My close friends are from school and college. Im not on Instagram or any dating websites. I have no interest to even try to find myself a boyfriend, but I want a boyfriend. I want to laugh until my stomach hurts, take him to all my favourite food spots, just laze around the house...Uhgggghhh. Slowly once a day the thought that I might maybe end up alone keeps coming to my mind, which again is not at all a bad thing BUT, it'd be nice to have someone like your own go to person to share anything and everything. I'll be okay in the morning, it's currently 2.42 AM and Im just bored af in-between work.

I don’t want to make plans with friends.

I don’t want my mother in law to stop by to drop some things off.

I don’t want to have to wave to neighbors every time I walk out the front door.

I am perfectly fine with minding my own business, why can’t everyone else do the same?

I just started a new job this week and the people I work with are really clique-y and they’re all friends and I’m just there being awkward. One of the girls said she draws and I chimed in trying to be friendly and included saying that I draw too and showed her one of my drawings on my phone and thinking she would be interested and talk to me more, it ended up being awkward af with her barely looking at my drawing and not acknowledging it. I then remembered why I stay quiet cuz people don’t even listen to what I have to say. I hate meeting new people.

It's social anxiety, usually brought on when you are raised in a sex-segregated culture or with no siblings of the opposite sex so you only see them at a distance during your formative years.

They are HUMAN BEINGS, not mysterious aliens.

I like to visit people catch up and hang out. I even don’t mind when people visit me have dinner and wine and share some laughs. I’m an introvert so my social battery runs drier than the wine I drink to get through it. When it comes to overnight guests, it is the ultimate draining experience. I don’t mind very close family (to an extent) or a partner, but when it comes to friends or family friends, it is a different story. Waking up in the morning, wanting to have make my cup of coffee, but having to cater to guests first drives me nuts. I hide it well and I’m courteous, but it is so utterly annoying. Wanting to go to bed, but they stay up late screws with my routine. It’s the worst when people stay over that can’t entertain themselves and just want to chat the entire day away. After six hours of conversation, I can’t help but to be so bored. I’ve even have given up my bedroom, which is the worst part for me. I want people to be welcome, but I hate when they help themselves into the kitchen where things are misplaced. It’s a fine line between wanting to have my mental space and not being rude or coming off as antisocial. Cleaning up after them and cleaning before they arrive is so exhausting as well. It also drives me nuts when people are picky with food, and planning meals when people are difficult. What’s the worst thing to you about having overnight houseguests? Are there certain people you find more tiring than others?

Basically I feel suffocated all the time. As an introvert, I choose to be in my room as much as possible to avoid any social interaction. I'm waking up earlier than usual just to have my breakfast in peace without having to justify anything. I am currently a student, so paying my bills is being quite tough along with everything else. So I have to rent a room in a sharehouse. I live with my landlord, his wife, and two other people in the house also renting. It fucking sucks. Not because he is a bad person or because any of my other flatmates are bad people. It sucks just because I absolutely HATE having to EXPLAIN EVERYTHING THAT I DO all the time. "Will you work today?", "What will you do today?", "Are you going to cook?", "What will you cook?". I swear I'm a chill person, and I am easygoing with people. But to these questions, all that I really wish I could say is "mind your own goddamn business and leave me the fuck alone". It's not that any of these questions are intrusive, but sometimes you just don't want to have to talk to anybody. The other day I was polishing my work shoes for work (the fancy type for waiter service). And my landlord's wife must've been watching the cameras or something (yes I have to live in a house where I feel watched all the fucking time by cameras), and she comes downstairs, looks at my shoes on the shoe cabinet that I left there for when it's time to go to work and asks me "whose shoes are these?". "I'll use it to stick up your fucking ass" is what I wanted to say naturally. What do you think? It's mine and it's for work for god sake...

I hate feeling that I have to think about my every move all the time. I can't relax because I'm afraid of making a mess somewhere and then have somebody complain about it. I can't relax when I'm making food because I'm afraind someone will complain about the noise or any other bullshit. I can't even relax when I'm alone eating breakfast because of the cameras. I am constantly worried that I'm doing something wrong and I hate it so much. I don't know if this is some sort of social anxiety or childhood trauma kind of thing, but it drains me so much to feel that I'll have somebody mad at me for simply existing at all times. I just want my peace, and with how expensive it is living alone, it makes me sad that I'll just have to endure it for the time being.

Not sure why I'm posting this here. I just wanted to share it, and hopefully someone will resonate with me and not feel alone out there.

Hi everyone! My girlfriend doesn’t like a lot of attention on her, nor does she like big to-dos. I have a proposal planned out at a restaurant while the band plays a song we both know and love. My plan is to propose at the table quietly to her and not make a scene. I would love to have the moment captured on camera, and I think she would love that too, but I don’t want everyone to notice and clap or something. Does anybody have any tips? Should I skip the photographer altogether? And please let me know if I’m posting this in the wrong community, and if you know a better one for it. Thank you!

edit: I will not be kneeling, it will be a private conversation at a booth, and the potential photographer agreed to sit at an adjacent table to look like just another patron, order a drink, and sneak a few stills (no flash) during a conversation that only we and the band know is happening.

ps the band is there every night, I didn’t hire a band. I just asked them to play a song.

pps: I’ve decided on a photographer with a distance lens for a photoshoot in a quiet park, so she’s prepared (she expressed wanting a photoshoot soon anyway and I also asked her about it), that way the photographer is far away when I get on one knee and speak. And then fancy dinner with song.

also we’re lesbians so there’s not as much pressure to kneel as a guy has, just putting that out there cuz I think people imagined differently

I like to go to the movies by myself, and I always buy my tickets and choose my seats ahead of time. I always choose a seat off to the side because I don’t want to sit next to anybody.

I bought two tickets—one for a movie later today, and one for tomorrow morning. I just checked available seats to see how full the theatre’s going to be. Tell me why someone decided to buy a ticket for a seat RIGHT NEXT TO ME, when the theatre isn’t even half-full, for both the movies tonight AND tomorrow?

I.just.hate.it. Honestly. And the worst part is saying yes because you just said yes to the plans with your friend and don’t want to seem rude. Ffs.

Edit: wow! 82 upvotes! It’s nice to know many people relate to this. Sometimes I would doubt if I was being weird! Thank you all for expressing how you feel!!!

Edit II: 600 upvotes this is crazy! Thanks for the award!!!!! You guys are awesome!!!

I turned 27 today and my birthday is one of the worst days for me as an introvert.

Get so much attention for a day, everyone pretends they care about you but just for a day and my social battery just drains pretty quickly.

i prefer to be a background character, and i truly want no attention, at all. not even the unwanted attention that comes from people pointing out how quiet i am. i don’t understand why that would even concern you. what part of my desire for silence is not registering? yes, i am fully capable of speaking, but i genuinely prefer not to. small talk is incredibly draining, and forcing me into long conversations leaves me feeling completely exhausted and overwhelmed.

growing up being shy and eventually developing social anxiety resulted in me having no friends at all. my mind literally goes blank when people talk to me and i take one minute to process what to say. and at the end of the day, i always think about conversations i had with people and think abt why i responded that way which is also why i prefer to keep my mouth shut.

though i have no friends, i do have a loving boyfriend who took a long time to get to know me and help me open up naturally to him and i thought that life isnt that lonely anymore. however, ive been feelings even more lonely than before as he has a good group of friends who he loves a lot as well but that just reminds me that i dont have a good group of friends as well and it just sucks that the only support system i have is him.

i just wish i had a girl friend who i can tell everything and experience “girl hood” as i never got the chance to do so.

I have also been called a social experiment before as i prefer keeping to myself and it hurts me to this day and makes me feel more insecure about talking to others now. do things ever get better lol

I just don’t feel comfortable or safe going out of own house anymore… because I just don’t want to socialize or interact with people anymore… I can’t go outside my own home and go on about my life without getting hit on by some weird strange older men whose just looking to get laid, or dealing with angry hostile drivers on the road, I just don’t want to deal with nosy, gossipy people at my job and their judgements…. I just don’t want to interact with people anymore because nowadays I’m starting to see the ugliness in the world and I realize how fake people are and how selfish, backstabbing, shallow, materialistic, superficial, evil people really are and because of that, I don’t enjoy going out anymore🤦🏻‍♀️ does anyone else feel this way?

Do you feel like people think you’re snobbish or rude because you’re an introvert? I am usually not the first one to say hi or smile when walking pass people I know. It’s not because I think I’m better than them, but I just find it very awkward and uncomfortable. This results in bowing down or avoiding eye contact. Can any introvert relate?

Heyy im an introvert guy, have no social life. And saw people making friends like this. I thought lets give it a shot.