What Social Anxiety Feels Like (to me)

A while back I mentioned that I have been struggling with social anxiety more and more.  This isn't a new phenomenon in my life.  I've just been more aware of how acute it has become ever since having a mild panic attack in Sams Club while pregnant with Miles.  Saturday I had a real bad time with it and wanted to share what social anxiety is like for me.

When going to an event or place that I'm unfamiliar with, or uncomfortable at, I get nervous. Butterflies begin flying in my stomach and soon group together to become tangled into a knot.  So I enter the social event with a stomach pain.  If there are too many unfamiliar people, or the group is tightly dispersed my checks flush, I feel flustered and my mouth gets dry.  As the flight or flight response kicks in all I want to do is high tail it out of the area.  If I can't get away which is usually the case, my fingers and toes get cold.  Sometimes to the point where they feel like they are asleep.  At this point I quit making eye contact and walk briskly around with my head down.  My arms are either crossed because of my stomach ache, or my hands are shoved deep in my pockets trying to regain warmth.  Sometimes I wring my hands out of nervousness.  Now I'm sweating profusely even though my hands are so dang cold I can barely feel them.  If I'm still in the situation, my breathing gets more shallow as the knot from my stomach rises higher making it hard to breathe.  Since I now am not taking in the full amount of oxygen, the area around my mouth and eyes start to get tingly.  Dizziness follows and now I'm just trying to hold on until it's over without making a scene.  I can't focus, don't talk, and if asked a question make curt remarks.   The panic attack in Sams Club was the only time I've escalated worse than this and my vision started to go dark like when you stand up too fast.  I'm guessing that if I hadn't stopped and forced some deep breaths I may have passed out.

Now that you know my secret struggle you may be wondering (as I am) what is she doing to help herself through this?  An excellent question to which I don't have an answer, but am open to suggestions.  The one thing I know is that as a member of a church with 800+ people attending on a weekly basis I will be faced with a trigger situation continuously until I have over come this issue.

What would you do if you suffered from social anxiety?