Wow, I read this and was starting to wonder if I had registered and posted on this forum in my sleep or something! I am also a 27 year old female with horrible anxiety related to dating, so I understand where you are coming from. A lot of people would also not mistake me as shy and would be surprised to know that I have such crushing anxiety when it comes to dating.

I dread it.

It's not the normal "butterflies". I have a date this weekend and I am dreading it. Absolutely dreading it...and if someone were to tell me that it just means I don't really like him, well, I've always felt this way. I dread the idea of him calling or texting, I dread the idea of sitting and chatting, even though I'm actually fairly good at conversation, I dread it all.

I think my fight or flight response mechanism is out of whack.