Just read through this thread and I must say that is what I love about this forum. You can get a hug when you need it and you can also get a good kick in the a** when you need it too (which is more often than not what I personally need) lol

Lol, other people may have as much choice about their personality as you do yours... for the record, I kind of like your personality.

At the same time, as a person with social anxiety... and a mother with schizophrenia, and having gone through both schizophrenic and manic psychosis, and depression myself--I've heard advice to more or less "buck up" way too many times. People say, "oh, everybody feels stressed. Just take that energy and..." Bullocks. You can no more know another person's anxiety than they can know your hunger. A person managing with a rabid dog in the room doesn't know how the person with the lion in the room feels. Sure, I have it better than a person in a room with a real lion. But it's the fear response that keeps a person from reacting to the lion in the room, not the lion itself.

I don't ask for pity or sympathy. Respect would be nice. Understand that a person you may think is failing to stand up may actually be braver than you think. They may be swimming slower than you, but there may be a stronger current.