I am a 22 year old girl who has every reason to be a social butterfly, however I experience the same anxieties you describe in certain social situations. My tip for you is that there is no solution that just fixes your fears, but it helps me to identify where they come from and what they are protecting yourself from.

Always when I first meet a guy I am attracted to my hands shake, my voice quivers and I often forget mid sentence what we are taking about. It becomes impossible to focus on connecting with someone when in that panic-mode. I have no power to stop this reaction and that is actually where some of my fear stems from – I am worried that I will completely embarrass myself.

When you imagine talking to someone, what exactly are you panicking about? Is it what they are going to do or what you are going to do? If you are an introvert, I imagine your answer is the same as mine that is it about your actions or reactions not the other person’s. It always helps me to imagine the other person just as nervous about what they are doing as I am about what I am doing. If I recall in my memory about times people where embarrassed – 99.99% are about myself not another person.

You said that you have never been with a girl, I am going to assume this means have sex? The only way to prepare yourself is to throw all expectations out the door and know you will have fear. No matter how much you plan how it will happen in your mind - only experience can ease your fears because then you finally have an idea of what is going to happen.

You said deep inside you “know what to do,” so take a moment to think of your reasons for why this voice gets silenced by your panic-mode. Is it uncomfortable for you to feel fearful or is it maybe a voice in your head telling you something bad is going to happen? Are these voice truly right? How could this fear or voice know what will happen if it has never had sex? Sometimes our learned ways to handle situations are not actually the most beneficial overall – and it takes things like therapy to rewire this.

My last tip for you is embrace being an introvert and that you struggle with this. You can make it work in your favor with the right women. I like being around introverted men and find their nervousness charming. It puts my own worries at ease and I consider it a great compliment.