Hello everyone! So a while ago I made a thread about how I was going to group therapy for people with social anxiety/shyness. I wanted to come out to them but I was afraid of how it would go... Well, I finally did. And the responses were amazing! Basically, I started off telling people my story and how I live at home with my homophobic parents. I was crying the whole entire time and I was so nervous that they would judge me since I really liked all of them. Once I was finished with my story, I asked everyone if they felt ok about me talking about this and if it made them uncomfortable I wouldn't talk about it anymore. And everyone said no they had no problem with any of this. One guy even said that he can't understand people who say ignorant things like that and seemed genuinely upset. He even invited me to hang out with him and his gay friends! Then this other guy in my group said he got a bit teary eyed when I was talking and started asking me all these questions to try to help me. This other girl looked a bit uncomfortable when I started talking but it seemed like she got better afterwards and then started telling me about the gsa club on campus (which I already knew about but nice of her anyways). Finally, my counselors told me that I was so brave for telling everyone and how hard it must have been holding it back after so many sessions. My one counselor looked like she was about to cry and they said if I needed any resources to always let them know. I was just so touched and floored by the amount of sympathy and support from these group of people. I have to say that coming out in group really gave me hope for the future. I'm so used to hearing negative things about gay people from living at home that sometimes I think that most people think like my family does. But seeing at how understanding and caring everyone was even though we've only known each other for such a short while, really made me feel like the world isn't such a shit place. People really do surprise you. Maybe being gay isn't so terrible after all
Congratulations!!! I'm so happy for you that you have decided to come out to the group and that the response was amazing. Nope, being gay isn't terrible at all, and I am glad to read that the responses and having come out to the group has given you hope and perhaps also some increased confidence.
