Anxiety..almost freaking out in public places??

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Does anyone else get really, really nervous to the point of feeling like you might pass out in some places? When I enter a new class at college full of people I don't know, I feel so overwhelmed and nervous and can barely speak. At staff meetings at work, even though I am pretty comfortable with these people, just sitting all close together makes my heart race and I can't breath and I feel about to faint and I try my hardest to not let anyone else see I'm freaking out.

I HATE being this way, i can't seem to control it..like I will try to prepare myself mentally for when I know I am going to be in these situations, but even that doesn't help calm me down.

I also get incredibly nervous talking to other people and can't sit still..I know I must look like a lunatic bc I do know I tap my foot and fingers and hug myself and rub my arms and just squirm around..I know I am doing this yet I can't make myself stop.

Anyone else have similar experiences? If so, what do you do for these?? I do not want to get on medication. But i was wondering if there are any herbs that could help with anxiety?

Yes, my job causes me endless stress. Right now, I have been getting acupuncture treatments. So far, it's the only thing I have found that has helped me relax, reduces my stress, & anxiety. Too bad it only took me about 20 something years to discover it. Everyone is different, so what works well for me, may not work as well for you. Best of luck!

I'm wondering how you even make it on stage. Anyway, thats a method I suggest. Remind yourself when you're walking into class that not everyone is looking at you (unless you're late). If you're just walking, people have no idea that "you're an aspie" or anything like that. You are just like any other student walking into the classroom. I'm aware that nervousness may not be that easy to get rid of but I tried (to help you).

Your desciption is spot on as to my experiences 10 years ago. I absolutely could not stand it.

Things to start with:

1) breathe in very slowly, evenly and deeply through your nose
2) breathe out very slowly, evenly and deeply through your mouth

Repeat 20 times or so.

It seems simple, but it is near-impossible to do when you're wound up like this. Which is why, when you CAN do it, it works. Try to develop an ability to do this more often.

This exercise was a part of martial arts routine which I started 10 years ago and which helped me tremendously in such situations.

At the core I am still the same. But my reactions to long meetings was a mix of panic, extreme boredom and depressive existential angst, and now it is just extreme boredom and a bad mood. I don't care to monitor my face at boring meetings anymore, and neither do my co-workers.

We all look blankly while avoiding direct contact with the automaton at the whiteboard, and wait for it to end. We don't pretend to be happy. It saves some energy.

"I'm wondering how you even make it on stage. "

What do you mean make it on stage? That is a good tip...i will try to remember that!

And I have been taught the breathing thing but never can seem to do it..well except for a couple times, it really does work, its just calming down enough to be able to focus that is my problem.

thanks for the responses!

Not very often.

I feel like passing out sometimes, but from low blood pressure. My medication is thus easy to find.

I mean how do you appear in front of a large audience if you get nervous walking into a classroom. Sorry, i don't mean to judge, I probably just don't understand the whole getting nervous thing even though no one is looking at you.

No, I don't have any social anxiety like that. I can remember ever feeling that way. But I used to have panic attacks quite bad over a disease I have (costochondritis).

The only answer I have for anxiety that bad is meds. I take meds, and they work really well for me with no side effects (well, the anxiety meds have no side effects, anyway). I couldn't go out of my house without them, and barely can with them.

I have felt similar but only for the first month at my new high school, I don't take change very well and it was all new people surrounding me was just a little much. I've also had another similar experience but not to the same extreme; when waiting for a dentist appointment or doctor appointment in if they are late taking me in.

It depends on the situation. If I'm in a crowded theater, I have no problem because I'm not expected to do anything or interact in any way with the other people. However, I'd rather have surgery without anesthetic, than be at a party. Terrifying to the point of trembling and sweating.

Charles

Its what caused me to do poorly at job interviews. I also just had to go to this job program run by the University of Buffalo to help the unemployed to get grants for school. I had to sit around a tiny table with a load of people who were sitting elbow to elbow. The room was airconditioned but I had sweat pouring off me. To make matters worst I had these two loud mouth women who would not shut up sitting on either side of me. They kept trying to bring other people in the conversation. It was all I could do to keep from screaming shut up! Shut up! When they moved us to another room I could not believe how fast I got up from that table to get away from those people.

Crowds are very hard for me..recently I was a bridesmaid in a friends wedding and nearly had a panic attack, just at rehearsal. The actual wedding I somehow managed to make it through okay even though my knees and whole body was shaking. Giving presentations is very hard for me too. The only thing that keeps me going through these things is I refuse to give up. It would be easy to run out of the room and hide and give up, but I do not allow myself to be a quitter, even if that means making a fool of myself.

Oh, what do you mean by acupuncture? Do you mean you have somewhere on your body pressed which sends signals to your brain? Because I have wrist bands on my wrists which stops me from feeling sick. Is it something like that?
Because it's a very good idea for me. Then I will be much happier of dealing with people in my job!

Wow, you're just like me there! I think nothing of being at a cinema - even the noise doesn't bother me. Not one bit. Sometimes I panic if I've got teenagers who I don't know which are sitting next to me, but if they're there to watch the film, I'm sure they're not going to be sitting there taking notice of who I am the whole time.
I develop palpitations when I'm in a shopping mall with lots of people. But. . .it's not people - it's the horrible racket of toddlers screaming. It panics me, and it worries me, and I have to fight to stop myself from lashing out. I look at my foot, and I look at the kid's mouth, and (don't take offense if you have one of your own) I have to stop myself from taking my socks off and shoving them into the kids mouth.
So that is why I can't cope in public. It's because of children under 5.

But here's something similiar but different at the same time. I don't like teenagers either. Anyone over the age of 12 to 13 years, and under the age of about 17 to 18 years. I get panicy with them, but in a different way. It's the way they glare at me as though they can sense that I'm ''different'', even though I am walking like everybody else. When boys pass me on bikes they yell or screech in my face, and when I pass girls they glare and snigger. This doesn't help my self esteem. So if I'm approaching a crowd of teenagers who are shouting, my heart leaps to my throat, as though I'm approaching a pride of lions.

And all this anxiety and fear when walking in the street physically gives me diarrhoea. Toddlers don't damage my self esteem - I just hate the sound of them. But teenagers seemed to give a worst effect on me. I never got bullied through school, but I sometimes got sniggered at, so why should I still suffer with it after my school days are over? Why should I suffer with it in the street?

So if it weren't for toddlers and teenagers, I'll be quite happy to go clothes shopping. Well - except for when people get in my way or vice sersa.