Well now a days the cause is different. Im not sure exactly what caused it in my childhood, but it got better as i got older. So by college the cause was me thinking about it all the time. I would worry about it and think about and stuff that happened instead of just focusing on the present or what i was doing. What i noticed was after like 3 weeks of just laying down and not thinking about it at all and being preoccupied with something that took my attention off it. I noticed it was gone and i could talk like a normal person. I didnt feel all the feelings i associate with my panic attacks and social anxiety. In the past, when i didnt feel them holding me back, i was actually a pretty funny, smart, social guy, but majority of the time im held back so much by my anxiety that im pretty much almost retarted most of the time. I could hit it off with everybody in class when we first meet and be the funniest guy, then the next day theyre excited seeing me and then im held back and pretty much turn into a douche, and it ruins the relationship and they stop talking to me. When i was actually relieved of them i got completely different reactions from the same people who were weirded out by me when i talked. I was actually funny, not just at the moments when im not in my "fight or flight" mode (which is why people with social anxiety have trouble functioning mentally in general or conversations with people, because you werent meant to be able to socialize or think and reason as smart and well as you would when youre calm, you were meant to fight for your life or run for your life. Thats what the physiological and mental changes your body makes when you experience symptoms, youre not in "normal" mode where you can think clearly and also socialize, your in "run or fight like your life depends on it" mode). It was my base now instead of being socially off with the occasional times i could socialize without getting held back.

I noticed that i would instinctively start thinking about my anxiety and picturing the feelings i associated with them and BOOM it came back. They wouldnt go away unless i layed down and didnt think about them anymore for a while. Then i was clear headed again. And i realized then that there was a point where the original cause of the social anxiety ended its damage and i was a regular person, but i kept thinking about it and bringing it back and causing it myself. There honestly was a time when i was younger when i didnt think about it ever and it always happened anyway, but now its my anxious thoughts causing it.

So im not sure if thats the answer youre looking for. For me now and for the past who knows how many years, me and my anxious thoughts were the cause of my anxiety, and still is. I had a chance to fix it when it was easier to fix but i didnt do it, but now its not that simple to just not think about and take your attention away from it until you do i naturally. Its way harder to do that now if any of this even makes sense. I noticed you cant explain this to someone who doesnt have it because they dont experience it so to them it doesnt exist and sounds weird. If your mind goes blank during a convo, theyll say just talk because it works for them and theyre not in a "fight or flight" mode while you are. So theyre assuming nobodys in a fight or flight response and can easily think and socialize like they do and dont understand why you or a person with social anxiety cant.