u/Hundebus9

I’m currently 16 years old and live in Germany. Over the past few months, and especially the last few weeks, I’ve realized just how much my introversion and anxiety are interfering with my everyday life, both academically and socially.
Academically, I’ve always been a quiet student who rarely raises his hand. Historically, this behavior never caused major issues with my final grades because my written performance was strong enough to compensate for my poor oral participation. However, I’m now in the 11th grade, and during recent grade reviews, my teachers have been more urgent than ever. Some are being quite dramatic, saying things like, “I’ve never had a student like you,” due to the massive discrepancy between my written exams and my classroom presence. In the German school system, 11th-grade marks don't fully impact graduation yet, but grades 12 and 13 count directly toward the final GPA, which adds a lot of pressure. As an example of my struggles with participation, look no further than a recent German lesson. My teacher suddenly called on me to present my work via Apple TV. Since I hadn't raised my hand, I was completely caught off guard. Knowing that arguing would be pointless, I connected my iPad to the projector and started reading my answers out loud. While doing so, the anxiety hit me physically. My face turned bright red, my voice started shaking, I broke into a sweat, and I was visibly trembling at my own words. It felt honestly disastrous.
Socially, I’ve also felt the consequences of my anxiety extraordinarily strongly lately. For example, on the first of May, a few friends and I planned to meet up and hang out. The problem was the group dynamic. I was very close with three of the participants, barely knew another three, and had never seen the remaining two in my life. Because of those five people I wasn’t comfortable with, I ended up canceling last minute, even though my close friends urged me to come and promised it would be fun. They went without me. This is just one example, but it applies to pretty much every social aspect of my life, including romantic opportunities.
Because of all this, I finally reached out and got an appointment with a therapist in about three weeks. Honestly, I don't know what to expect. Since booking it, I’ve been having a bad gut feeling, constantly worrying that I might just be wasting his time and that maybe nothing is actually "wrong" with me (e.g., that I'm just lazy or unmotivated). I’m also deeply concerned that I won't be able to articulate my thoughts properly, as I have never openly talked about these issues with anyone face-to-face.
One way or another, I am going to go to that appointment. Still I was wondering, has therapy actually helped any of you with similar issues? What was your first session like? Please feel free to share your experiences.

I’m currently 16 years old and live in Germany. Over the past few months, and especially the last few weeks, I’ve realized just how much my introversion and anxiety are interfering with my everyday life, both academically and socially.
Academically, I’ve always been a quiet student who rarely raises his hand. Historically, this behavior never caused major issues with my final grades because my written performance was strong enough to compensate for my poor oral participation. However, I’m now in the 11th grade, and during recent grade reviews, my teachers have been more urgent than ever. Some are being quite dramatic, saying things like, “I’ve never had a student like you,” due to the massive discrepancy between my written exams and my classroom presence. In the German school system, 11th-grade marks don't fully impact graduation yet, but grades 12 and 13 count directly toward the final GPA, which adds a lot of pressure. As an example of my struggles with participation, look no further than a recent German lesson. My teacher suddenly called on me to present my work via Apple TV. Since I hadn't raised my hand, I was completely caught off guard. Knowing that arguing would be pointless, I connected my iPad to the projector and started reading my answers out loud. While doing so, the anxiety hit me physically. My face turned bright red, my voice started shaking, I broke into a sweat, and I was visibly trembling at my own words. It felt honestly disastrous.
Socially, I’ve also felt the consequences of my anxiety extraordinarily strongly lately. For example, on the first of May, a few friends and I planned to meet up and hang out. The problem was the group dynamic. I was very close with three of the participants, barely knew another three, and had never seen the remaining two in my life. Because of those five people I wasn’t comfortable with, I ended up canceling last minute, even though my close friends urged me to come and promised it would be fun. They went without me. This is just one example, but it applies to pretty much every social aspect of my life, including romantic opportunities.
Because of all this, I finally reached out and got an appointment with a therapist in about three weeks. Honestly, I don't know what to expect. Since booking it, I’ve been having a bad gut feeling, constantly worrying that I might just be wasting his time and that maybe nothing is actually "wrong" with me (e.g., that I'm just lazy or unmotivated). I’m also deeply concerned that I won't be able to articulate my thoughts properly, as I have never openly talked about these issues with anyone face-to-face.
One way or another, I am going to go to that appointment. Still I was wondering, has therapy actually helped any of you with similar issues? What was your first session like? Please feel free to share your experiences.

I’m currently 16 years old and live in Germany. Over the past few months, and especially the last few weeks, I’ve realized just how much my introversion and anxiety are interfering with my everyday life, both academically and socially.
Academically, I’ve always been a quiet student who rarely raises his hand. Historically, this behavior never caused major issues with my final grades because my written performance was strong enough to compensate for my poor oral participation. However, I’m now in the 11th grade, and during recent grade reviews, my teachers have been more urgent than ever. Some are being quite dramatic, saying things like, “I’ve never had a student like you,” due to the massive discrepancy between my written exams and my classroom presence. In the German school system, 11th-grade marks don't fully impact graduation yet, but grades 12 and 13 count directly toward the final GPA, which adds a lot of pressure. As an example of my struggles with participation, look no further than a recent German lesson. My teacher suddenly called on me to present my work via Apple TV. Since I hadn't raised my hand, I was completely caught off guard. Knowing that arguing would be pointless, I connected my iPad to the projector and started reading my answers out loud. While doing so, the anxiety hit me physically. My face turned bright red, my voice started shaking, I broke into a sweat, and I was visibly trembling at my own words. It felt honestly disastrous.
Socially, I’ve also felt the consequences of my anxiety extraordinarily strongly lately. For example, on the first of May, a few friends and I planned to meet up and hang out. The problem was the group dynamic. I was very close with three of the participants, barely knew another three, and had never seen the remaining two in my life. Because of those five people I wasn’t comfortable with, I ended up canceling last minute, even though my close friends urged me to come and promised it would be fun. They went without me. This is just one example, but it applies to pretty much every social aspect of my life, including romantic opportunities.
Because of all this, I finally reached out and got an appointment with a therapist in about three weeks. Honestly, I don't know what to expect. Since booking it, I’ve been having a bad gut feeling, constantly worrying that I might just be wasting his time and that maybe nothing is actually "wrong" with me (e.g., that I'm just lazy or unmotivated). I’m also deeply concerned that I won't be able to articulate my thoughts properly, as I have never openly talked about these issues with anyone face-to-face.
One way or another, I am going to go to that appointment. Still I was wondering, has therapy actually helped any of you with similar issues? What was your first session like? Please feel free to share your experiences.