Nymira, what you are dealing with is NOT "basic, simple anxiety" or even the ever-popular current catch-all category of "generalized anxiety disorder" that happens to be my diagnosis. Anne is right--NEW DOCTOR NOW. Don't worry about whether they have PhD after their name! You will know the moment you are in a room with the one who 'clicks' with your needs. My mother considers my psychiatric care team inadequate because none of them have a PhD--there are all of 2 of those in my county, 1 with a disconnected number and the other NOT considering new patients. Meanwhile, Mom and I show the same symptoms, but I'm put on disability for life by a judge while her PhD "experts" in a different time zone say all she needs is sleep...and give her Wellbutrin! Normally that's not recommended as a sedative OR for women. My counselor is not a PhD and cannot prescribe me psych meds; it is my immense good fortune that she shares an office with someone qualified to prescribe AND not afraid of benzodiazepines. I've got a very comfortable 16-year history with diazepam/Valium to allay the inevitable addiction worries; the only reason I've sought alternative medication lately is that the benzos' side effects are becoming problematic--leaving me always groggy and tired out no matter how much I sleep.

Two things about your post immediately caught my attention. The first is your username, which reminds me a great deal of the name of Arya Stark's dire wolf from Game of Thrones. The second is that you have one situation where your triggers are disarmed. For me, the strangers-and-crowds trigger vanishes at small-venue rock concerts, but RPGs are absolutely NO stranger to my happy memories. I have 2 life partners, and other than both being men they could hardly be more different. The one I celebrated 11 years with last summer is a long-time gamer, as I am myself--at one point we decided to whip up our own system that took character generation from GURPs, combat rules from White Wolf, and "a shining air of hope and joy" from Call of Cthulhu.

I absolutely think pigeonholing your challenges as "social anxiety" is a mistake. Anxiety is as diverse as those of us who must face it every day. You will KNOW when you find the right counselor/therapist/psychiatrist. Do not waste your time on 'professionals' who dismiss you like it sounds as if you've already endured. In my very short time on this board so far, I have learned that there will ALWAYS be support when I'm in a tough situation, and I've seen nothing that makes me think you'd be supported any less through the intensely difficult process of finding the right psychiatric care.