I have been diagnosed with S.A.D.

God, aren't I awesome. Everyone has always waved me away and said "Oh, he's just shy".
Oh.. S.A.D. isn't "sad" it stands for "Social Anxeity Disorder". The way I'm jumping from statment to statment, I might have ADHD too, haha.
Anywho, I'm kind of glad because I know the thoughts I had been thinking were unresonable. At least now I know how crazy I really am, haha. They think its pyshcological;
- Learning and Personal Experiences – A person’s personal experiences are thought to influence the development of social anxiety disorder. For example, a history of negative experiences in social situations (e.g., being teased at school) may cause a person to subsequently fear or avoid social situations if being around people becomes associated or linked with the negative experience. In addition, an individual who is exposed to others with extreme social anxiety (e.g., growing up with parents who have social anxiety disorder) may learn to fear the same situations just through observation. The messages children receive from parents, teachers, friends, and the media (e.g., it’s important to always make a good impression) may also affect the development of social anxiety disorder in some individuals. Of course negative social experiences alone are not enough to cause social anxiety disorder, and only a small percentage of people who have such experiences go on to develop the problem.

• Attention and Memory – Generally people with social anxiety disorder tend to pay more attention to, and remember more accurately, socially threatening information than people without social anxiety. For example, people with social anxiety disorder appear to be particularly good at remembering faces, especially negative or critical faces, compared to people without social anxiety disorder. Although the data demonstrating a tendency to pay closer attention to socially threatening information in social anxiety disorder are fairly well established, studies on memory biases in social anxiety disorder have been somewhat less consistent in their findings.

• Beliefs and Interpretations about Social Situations – People with social anxiety disorder tend to hold beliefs and interpret social events in such a way as to maintain or increase their anxiety. For example, people with social anxiety disorder are especially worried about others reactions to their behavior and to noticing their symptoms of anxiety (e.g., blushing, shaking, sweating). Furthermore, they also tend to make more negative evaluations of their performance in social situations compared to people who are not socially anxious. Finally, compared to individuals without social anxiety disorder, people with social anxiety disorder tend to interpret neutral facial expressions negatively, and expect that negative consequences of social events will be more likely and more costly.

• Avoidance and other Anxious Behaviors – Avoidance of social situations prevents people with social anxiety disorder from learning that social and performance situations are not as “dangerous” as they feel. In addition, certain anxious behaviors (e.g., avoiding eye contact, standing far away from others, speaking quietly) may lead some people with social anxiety disorder to actually be judged more negatively by others, thereby maintain the anxious beliefs.

Here's a link to the site that explains it; http://www.anxietytreatment.ca/socialphobia.htm

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else had to deal with this?

Im sorry for you, that sounds really hard :( No I dont know of anyone else that has to deal with that, but I was just wondering I thought S.A.D is Seasonal Affective Disorder?

Wow. That sounds exatly like me. Everyone thinks I'm just shy etc. But I just read through that description of S.A.D. and I realised that explains pretty much everything. I never realised there was actually a disorder for that sort of stuff.

Anyway, if you ever wanna talk, just pm me.

In the old days they would have called you something else..... now at least you have a title to give to your problems....be happy

I usually tend to lean towards those kinds of people, I turned a girl who was hidden from society to an active social person. I think it depends on how people treat you. Sometimes, it takes yourself to get over it all, start with one person and you will soon be "out there" in the crowd among everyone else. I used to be like that, I mean when I was younger people thought I was deaf or something, now I'm described as loud and what they call here " the audiences lover"

I don't have S.A.D. but I have some other kind of severe anxiety disorder...i can't remember what its called. It's kinda like that but idk.

Sounds kinda like how I am. I used to be way worse, but I still can't speak in front of people without being insanely nervous, can't start conversations with most people, don't like meeting new people, can't talk to random people, it annoys me sometimes and I realize that I shouldn't be that afraid of all of this, but I just am. There is only one person that i am not afraid to talk to, and shes my best friend. I get annoyed with myself because I can't just talk to people. But, ive been this way for as far back as i can remember, and I just deal.