[MENTION=40283]Yee199[/MENTION]; Yeah, stuff becomes alot harder. I don't know where the border between being shy and having social phobia goes, but my case was so obvious that it wasn't even hard to figure it out :/ You could always go and speak with a doctor to see what he/she says :/ I recognize some things that you mentioned about your friend.
I barely talk to people at all, only if they ask me questions. I'm simply afraid of making me look like a fool. This also includes my family, the only ones i can speak normally to is my mother, father, brother and sister. If my cousin/aunt/uncle/grandfather/grandmother were to speak to me they would probably only get "yes or no" answers back whenever they ask me something. If teacher asked me something i just answered with "I don't know" so i wouldn't have to suffer the feeling if i'm right or wrong with my answer. I don't dare to ask my friend if he wants to do something since i believe that he won't like it and therefore i usually ask him what he wants to do.
I used to look down while walking, but a person told me something important that i didn't realize myself.
She said: "You look down because you don't want to attract attention, right? That isn't such a good idéa you know. If you are the only one who walks while looking down and everyone around you walks normally, wouldn't you be the odd one out that everyone put their attention on?" And that came like a shock. I knew immediatly that she were right, but i couldn't believe how i could have missed that.
Talking silently meant different things to me. For example: "I'm not worthy enough to tell them my opinions.", "Why would others care about what i think anyways?" and the most important of all "How can i do to get people to leave me alone? Can i show hatred towards them so they won't feel welcome while speaking to me. Eventually they will quit, right?".
Those were some of my main reasons to why i speak silently. I seem to talk normally when i'm talking to a single person, but I speak way to silent if i'm in a group of people.
Also, the best way to improve your sociality isn't to speak with 1 person over and over even if you sometimes might believe that it is. Because you will get used to that person after a while and then you won't be as worried anymore. Just wait until you have to speak to someone else who isn't your friend and then you'll realize how wrong you were. I know that since that's what happened to me. I thought that i had fallen back to the previous me and therefore created a negative point of view on this world that i still live by. It's hard to just leave it, you know.
