Hello Doc,
This is how my mind works when I see an attractive woman I want to talk to:
“Hey, my coworker is pretty cute. I wish I could get to know her more.”
“She’s in a different department, how could I talk to her?”
“If I were to go up to her for no other reason, that might creep her out.”
“Creeping out a coworker would be disastrous. What would that even mean for me in this job?”
“Do I even know how to start a conversation with a woman without creeping her out?”
“How would I even find out how to do that? Just keep approaching, trial and error, creeping women out until I eventually find out how?”
“I can’t even learn how to do that without creeping out women…”
“How can I even date without that knowledge…”
“What woman would want to date such a sad sack like me…”
And then I go into an anxiety and depressive spiral for the next few days, sometimes weeks. You can replace “coworker” there with “acquaintance”, “woman in my dance class”, or “woman at the bar”, and it’s mostly the same.
So what do I even do?
My Own Worst Enemy