The Confessing Seventh-day Adventist

Hi, I have social anxiety (i've gotten a lot better over some years but there's still some left ) and depression. I live in a place where there are really not many adventists and i don't have a close friend in the church. I go to a psychiatrist, she's not adventist, i think she's exploring Jehovah's witnesses.

I guess my point is, i have mental problems and I'm feel like a horrible witness for God. I've been in the church since i was 7 years old and i fear that if people would find out around me that i'm dealing with depression and social anxiety.. they would blame it on my church or that i was raised a Christian. And that makes my social anxiety worse and my depression.. so i feel i'm stuck. I don't let anybody in, can't make relationships with people, i find it hard to open up to my psychiatrist because i don't think she will understand this and i'm just so tired of pretending to be a good Christian with no problems.

Since relationships are such an important part of witnessing about God, I feel i'm ruining God's reputation with how I am.

Anybody relate... or does anybody have anything to say

Oh yeah, I'm female and I'm 23 years old.

Dear leafy,

I have to admit that I never heard of "social anxiety." Because I wanted to offer some help to you, I just now quickly read an article about "social anxiety disorder" on the internet. The facts of the article made me feel even more sympathetic to your personal suffering and increased my desire to make you my friend. It is my understanding that our simple communication might be of help to you. How do you feel about chatting with me, a stranger to you, through the anonymity of the internet?