# Anxiety Disorders > Social Anxiety Disorder >  >  What is your biggest fear?

## kc1895

What is your biggest fear in a social situation?  Are you afraid of being judged?  Being misunderstood?  Or do you _fear_ the anxiety of being in a social situation so you avoid it at all costs?

My biggest fear is being completely ignored in a small group of people.  I try to follow along with the conversation while maintaining eye contact with people around me, except no one wants to look at me, and they continue the conversation with each other while I start to become invisible.  Its as if once you stop talking, your physical presence starts to fade away and they notice less and less of your physical form, and then at some point you disappear entirely.  (You might notice they walk away or leave you without noticing you're still there.)  I might be exaggerating a little, but this form of neglect has happened to me many times in my life.  Its the reason I avoid meeting groups of strangers or people I don't know.  I feel that my time could be better spent alone or elsewhere than to be ignored and treated as non-existent.  I put up a defense mechanism so that I feel indifferent or uninterested in meeting new people because of this fear.

Does anyone have a similar fear?

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## Chloe

My biggest fear is centred around men. I have this irrational fear that one of these days a man will hit me, bundle me off in a car or rape me. Because of this I get anxious at work if any of my male coworkers crowd me out behind the till or come into the audio cupboard. People have even noticed this and think I'm not a Huggy person and it's funny but It's not and it really really scares me.  I don't like people who are drug or even worse on drugs because of the unpredictability of their behaviour and the chance of them turning on me. If a car pulls up next to me in the street I immediately take in a big breath ready to scream and bunch up my fists. All of these are completely  really unfounded and yet they're reoccurring thoughts when I panic or I'm anxious. They're reoccurring in nightmares as well which is stupid since I've never been affected by anything of that type of nature or anyone I know either. So it's not quiet a social thing but it's still my biggest fear  ::\:  


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## L

Being dyslexic I often have to take a moment and structure my thoughts in my head before speaking, When under pressure I find this really difficult and feel I come across as stupid or unintelligent. It is like I can become mute and no thoughts come to mind, I speak too fast and end up saying my closing point before anything else.

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## Keddy

My biggest fear in a social situation is being around large groups of people my age. This fear comes from when I was in high school and I ended up being traumatized from most of the social situations there. I didn't really have any friends and I always had trouble finding a place to sit at lunch because no one wanted to be near me, and everyone said I was mentally retarded (which is very far from the truth). I don't think there was ever one day in high school that I did not get teased, made fun of, or laughed at. I was afraid to raise my hand in class because people made comments every time I answered a question. I'm extremely socially awkward and shy but none of that warranted or justified what people did to me in high school.
I'm in my 20s now and I'm still terrified of people my age because they're judgmental. I still get laughed at and teased sometimes at college now too so I generally try to stay away from people and not make any friends.
I'm also really scared of having a panic attack in public, especially at work. I don't think I'd be able to live down everyone's reaction to that.

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## Chantellabella

My biggest fear? 

That I truly am worthless.

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## merc

My biggest fear is that people will hate me.  However, since I generally assume that no one will be friendly to  a loser like me. I tend to be sort of stand-offish. In my case it becomes a vicious cycle.

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## IllusionOfHappiness

Being judged/misunderstood is pretty high on my list because it's happened so much in the past. Otherwise, fear of anxiety itself is a big one for me as well. Anxiety about having anxiety. What fun.

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## Koalafan

> What is your biggest fear in a social situation?  Are you afraid of being judged?  Being misunderstood?  Or do you _fear_ the anxiety of being in a social situation so you avoid it at all costs?
> 
> *My biggest fear is being completely ignored in a small group of people.*  I try to follow along with the conversation while maintaining eye contact with people around me, except no one wants to look at me, and they continue the conversation with each other while I start to become invisible.  Its as if once you stop talking, your physical presence starts to fade away and they notice less and less of your physical form, and then at some point you disappear entirely.  (You might notice they walk away or leave you without noticing you're still there.)  I might be exaggerating a little, but this form of neglect has happened to me many times in my life.  Its the reason I avoid meeting groups of strangers or people I don't know.  I feel that my time could be better spent alone or elsewhere than to be ignored and treated as non-existent.  I put up a defense mechanism so that I feel indifferent or uninterested in meeting new people because of this fear.
> 
> Does anyone have a similar fear?



This 100%. I hate hate hate groups with a passion. Especially when everyone is talking and joining in on the conversation and you just sit there quietly thinking of something to say. And when you do say it...no one listens or even responds. This actually happened to me earlier today at work...great feeling -____-. But I guess my main fear is being judged negatively in some fashion. When the attention focuses on me I become hyper aware of everything I'm doing and it makes too scared too actually say/do anything so I just come off as really aloof and awkward...which makes people judge me even harsher =/

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## Kirsebaer

Public speaking is my biggest fear. I wonder if it'll ever get any easier for me.
I'm confident when it comes to one-on-one conversations and small groups (although it hasn't always been the case)

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## Rawr

My biggest fear in a Social Situation is coming off awkward. If anyone here has seen Frozen, you'll understand this reference. For me it's like Elsa fearing her power so much that it shows even worse as she keeps worrying about it but it's very hard not to. So for me my fear of coming off awkward only shows worse as I keep naturally fearing it.

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## merc

My biggest fear in a Social Situation is coming off awkward.

This is the behavior I fear that others hate about me.  May as well add strange etc.

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## Inscrutable Banana

I have many fears and my life has pretty much been controlled by them for a while, so I suppose my biggest fear is that I'll never be able to overcome them. Amusingly, I think I've also developed a fear of overcoming my fears, so I guess I'm kind of screwed, aren't I?

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## Lizard

On a daily basis, I guess being judged poorly.  On a grand scale, conflict and maybe not being able to protect myself physically.

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## kc1895

> My biggest fear in a Social Situation is coming off awkward. If anyone here has seen Frozen, you'll understand this reference. For me it's like Elsa fearing her power so much that it shows even worse as she keeps worrying about it but it's very hard not to. So for me my fear of coming off awkward only shows worse as I keep naturally fearing it.



I did see that movie.  I remember the scene when Elsa had to remove her gloves to do the toast thing, and it began freezing.  It definitely made me think of how social anxiety works.

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## IllusionOfHappiness

> *My biggest fear in a Social Situation is coming off awkward.* If anyone here has seen Frozen, you'll understand this reference. For me it's like Elsa fearing her power so much that it shows even worse as she keeps worrying about it but it's very hard not to. So for me my fear of coming off awkward only shows worse as I keep naturally fearing it.



Can I change my answer to this?  :: 
I've got so many fears it's hard to measure their severities. 

Side note: if I had a dime for every time I corrected spell check. >.<
Severities is a word dammit.

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## Chloe

I don't want people to know about my anxiety ether. I always think they'll call me weird or use it against me or whatever. There's been times when I've held in a panic or done it really really quietly but it feels awful 


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## Kesky

being useless, irrelevant.

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## Snoopy

Being outcasted.

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## nemmm3

Mine is having someone close to me die. I'm petrified of how I'm going to deal with that.
I haven't even experienced a pet die before.

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## TheCARS1979

> Mine is having someone close to me die. I'm petrified of how I'm going to deal with that.
> I haven't even experienced a pet die before.



its hard, i went through that

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## Misssy

Being, becoming old, geriatric, ugly and "unfortunate", becoming ill, having chronic diseases that make every day a painful experience. The moment of death, the dying process. Being alone. These types of things. Loosing the chance to do something forever. Though I think some of that is more like sadness not fear. 

People, I am quite afraid of people. 

Getting hit by a car while I am crossing the street.

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## Daniel

My biggest fears are being judged, misunderstood, coming off as awkward and the anxiety of being in a social situation.

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## Sagan

Becoming homeless.

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## lovetornadoes

Losing myself completely!

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## tired

My worst fear, oh a hard question that i know the answer for.
my worst fear is to be left alone, we all are surrounded of all this people, both we barely know and all the people you know. 
We all is used to see people everyday. But to be alone, left in this stupid world of ours is the worst thing that can happen. I have social anxiety and i wouldn't even imagine a world of lonelyness. Thats my worst fear. (Sorry for my bad English)

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## cameron

people thinking im a freak and hating me  ::(:

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## IllusionOfHappiness

Currently it's failure. Having my anxiety own me and prevent me from conquering even the smallest of life's feats. Letting people down.

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## AndrewsSmith

My biggest fear is fear itself. Other than instinctive fear for survival most fear is disabling..

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## sanspants

Ending up with the wrong person and spending my life jealous.

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## Dane

Slipping back to where I was so socially anxious that I couldn't make even the most casual connection with other people.

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## enchanted

my kids dying.

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## Blessedbutstressed

Definitively agree with like 90% of the fears here of small groups, big groups, public speaking, being judged, not being liked, etc. I feel in high school the social anxiety got worse. It seems everyone is so outgoing and unafraid  and that just makes it easier for me to swell back up in my shell. But it's so uncomfortable and awkward wanting to engage in conversation but being afraid and stressed about the outcome. I would also like to add an uncommon fear of not being funny. It is a major insecurity of mine and one of the main reasons I do not talk with others. I constantly over analyze everything I say, wanting it to always be humorous. I am not entirely sure where this stems from, but it is very real to me. I also compare myself to the average funny person and take it to heart when my joke isn't laughed at. I can hardly use social media anymore because if I don't  get much of a reaction I feel so bad afterwards. In the other spectrum, if I do get reaction, it actually makes my day. My insecurity is like the usual insecurity people have about their physical appearances, but instead of physical appearances it is a personality insecurity. I'm always afraid my personality isn't good enough and that my humor is slim to none. I also feel people only like people who are funny. I value my self worth through this fear and it really needs to stop because it is not a fun fear to have to beat myself up over whether everything I say is funny or not. What a joke.

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## Misssy

rotting like a zombie but for real like some people do, being put in jail and being raped by cops, being de-capitated by a terrorist....or a neighbor....or a bad driver

my dreams not coming true... shrug

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