Rock concerts as a therapy

[Dylflon]

A few weeks ago when I was walking home from Blockbusters with my friend, we came across a HUGE group of teenagers that had been drinking. We tried crossing the street to get away from them to no avail. There were a lot of little groups of them. But as we were walking a few of them jumped me and repeatedly punched me in the face.

For I while after that I was really screwed up. I was afraid of any stranger. I had developed some sort of social anxiety disorder.

I had a ticket to a concert called Warped Tour. I went just one week after the incident. It wasn't the best choice of social events. There were a lot of weird people there. And I was constantly afraid of getting beat up. I had my first anxiety attack ever at that concert.

So I continued fearing strangers and getting freaked out whenever I thought about me getting jumped.

But just a few days ago I went to the Foo Fighters concert. I was a bit nervous at first. But THRILLHO got me to go into the mosh. Being surrounded by and packed into a group withall sorts of strangers was very therapeutic in a way. I realized that nothing bad was happening and I started to calm down. I really enjoyed that concert.

Being in such a big group of strangers like that was a big step forward. Now I'm not afraid of strangers NEARLY as much. I still am a little bit edgy around those extra-shady characters. And thinking about when I got jumped doesn't really scare me anymore. I just had to come to the realization that not everybody wants to hurt me.

I'm going to another concert very soon. I'll be going to R.E.M. I'll be pretty much by myself because everyone I'm going with has tickets for a special section but I don't . So I'll be alon all night with people I don't know. That should be another step towards my being able to trust people again.

Rock concerts have really helped me with this social anxiety disorder. It's a therapy that I've discovered can work really well. It may not work for everyone but why not give it a shot?