Why am I coming out now and writing about my social anxiety? Why am I posting videos of myself where it is visibly and audibly obvious that I am still struggling with social anxiety? Why not wait until I am cured and completely free of social anxiety to talk and write about how I beat it?

1. I could be waiting forever.

I may never fully overcome my social anxiety. I think I have improved a lot over the past couple of years, and I hope I can continue improving more and more, until my social anxiety is gone. However, I am also cognizant of the fact that I will always have social anxiety to a certain degree, and will only be able to learn to manage and cope with it better.

2. The proof is in the process.

It may be more beneficial to show myself now, still coping with social anxiety, and document the progress I may or may not make along the way. Sometimes you see gurus who claim to have had social anxiety and overcame it, and they will show you how they did it if you buy their program. I can’t help but be skeptical. It’s not that I believe all of them are lying, but I can’t help but think, yeah right, if you speak this well, there’s no way you ever had social anxiety. That may be unfair. They very may well have been in the exact same situation as me, or worse. I don’t know, but that’s the point. I’m writing this blog and posting these videos to reveal myself as I am now. I still have social anxiety, clearly, just by the way I talk in my videos— or struggle to— but I’m working to overcome it. I want to record it along the way, so if I do succeed, you can see how I did it. You can see the before, the during, and the after.

3. I’m ready.

A couple years ago, I never would have been able to admit to others that I have social anxiety, or talk openly about the disorder. I’ve overcome that fear and am at the point where I am ready to get out in the world and try to interact with others. I hope this video blog project can serve as a form of exposure therapy for myself, but also help others with social anxiety in the process.