Hi, not sure if I have SA, but I recognize a lot of things I see in myself when reading this subreddit, but I've never seen a doctor because of it, so not diagnosed.

Don't really have any tips, but I have been having the same thought for a while. In primary school (which is four years in my country), I have kind of always been the nerd that always had really good grades and was kind of obnoxious (I think, don't remember that well tbh). I wasn't super-confident, but I don't think I was anywhere near as shy as I am now. So when I got into secondary school (8 years, am in my second last year now), I tried not to talk as much because somehow 11-year old me thought it made me cooler, so I barely made any friends. In fact, the only one I hung around with was someone I already knew from primary school.

Needless to say my strategy didn't work. I was alone most of the time, and isolated myself playing video games which didn't exactly help my social skills either. A few years later it felt like I had fallen behind the others. Some started getting girlfriends, attending parties... For me, that was at least to some degree still something the "big ones" do. Not that I was not interested in girls, but it just seemed like something so far off. Still does actually. I'm 17 years old now, somehow managed to find a few people that for some reason consider me a friend (I hope), but I'm still dreading every social occasion. I'm awkward in conversation most of the time, never really know of anything witty or interesting to say, am very quiet and somewhat nervous most of the time when there are people I don't know well enough present. I really feel like I would be a completely different person if I didn't isolate myself that much, which I probably wouldn't have done if it weren't for the video games, and actually learned how to socialize and make friends properly.