What happens when you have social anxiety in crowded areas

If you don’t experience this, you might wonder why your friend/loved one suddenly is very adament on leaving or gets super grumpy and snappy all of a sudden.

Here’s what’s happening inside my body.

Many things can overlap for this; social anxiety, generalised anxiety and even maybe a bit of claustrophobia. I mainly feel this way whenever I go to places that are tight and crowded, or for exemple the malls during big holidays; where people are everywhere and won’t move out of your way or give you any personal space.

It begins with a feeling of thightness on my chest, feeling heavy. From there, i’m rapidly going into bitterness and snapping at whoever i’m with at the time- feeling the need to get away asap.

Pulling away and out of the situation, it takes a few minutes for the feeling to get away, leaving me tired as my social battery got drained. I need to get back home and rest, even if there’s still places to go for the day. I want to get rest and away from everyone, not speaking to anybody nor wanting to listen to someone speaking to me; which only overload my already drained battery.

A lot of the time, I can gaslight myself into thinking the meds are working and i’ve beated anxiety.. up until the next time i’m faced with this feeling 😅 ofcourse, my mother doesn’t understand this and don’t respect my need to flee amd especially being left alone, needing her to stop talking to me.

Anxiety being so mainstream nowadays, we forget how disabling it can actually be. Following this peak, my plans for the day are generally ruined; I now need a few hours for it to go down and possibly take a nap. If my errands aren’t done prior to it happening, we have to stop there. Doesn’t matter if I don’t have more time to do so before restarting my work week.

It’s also generally complicated to explain to someone who never felt this, like my mother, who don’t know why i’m suddently acting like this and need to stop to go back home.

Have you felt something like this?