Hey all,
I'm a 21 year old living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Currently studying my final year at University.
I've never had a lot of confidence with women or with people in general. I was always very quiet when I was younger. I've never had a girlfriend and in my 21 years have only ever kissed one girl. But things started to get better and in my late teens I began to come out of my shell. however, things were going well until I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis shortly after my 18th birthday. This left me practically housebound for two years and in that time I lost my ability to interact with people.
Last year I got fed up and opted to have a surgery to have my colon removed. Although this give me the freedom I needed to get on with my life the drawback was that I now have to have an unsightly stoma bag attached to my stomach at all times which has a big impact on my confidence.
However, since the surgery I've been optimistic and have been improving in the few months that I've had it. I go clubbing often and have eliminated a lot of my approach anxiety and I can carry a conversation a fair way, but my problem is taking it any further. I also have a lot of difficulty with day game (maybe I shouldn't rely on the Dutch courage so much
) and would love to be able to strike up conversation with girls at uni during the day.
Ultimately my goal is to regain my confidence in general and hopefully have a girlfriend within the next year or so. I've been given a year to decide on another surgery that will internalise the bag so it's not noticeable but if I'm confident with the bag I'm not going to bother since the surgery is painful and has a fairly high failure rate anyway.
Anyway, that's about it for my life story, sorry to bore you
Regards,
Dáire
CHAT
