common advice for social anxiety is to tell yourself "people aren't going to think less of you just because you said something a bit daft" but the thing is. sometimes they will. and you just have to learn to be cool with that and to treat it as a dnd random encounter rather than letting it ruin your whole day
recent example. lady at my careers appointment had a post-it with her name on it stuck to the monitor, so i introduced myself by saying "hello, i'm eliot! you must be [name], it's nice to meet you!" and she stared at me as if i was the stupidest person alive and said icily, "yeah, i'm [name]. congratulations, you can read."
in bygone times this would have reduced me to a sort of quivering blancmange. thankfully i am now in a place where i was able to pull back, calmly evaluate this interaction, and say to myself "this woman should probably not be working in a customer-facing job"
important additions!!!!
Sometimes learning "wow, that person is a DICK" is the best thing for your social anxiety.
Also, remember that this advice is for regular encounters with other people, like the one in beaft's example. It is not meant for situations in which a person or group has decided to actively harass you. This advice will be good for your arm in that it is ointment for that poison ivy rash near your elbow. It doesn't work on your fractured finger bone not because it is sucky advice but because that's not what it's for.

















