Everyone gets AA mate,
Like you i didn’t indulge in the company of other
pua’s nor was I assisted by wings. So when ever out I would ask whom ever I was with to challenge me to open a set, if you’re like me and enjoy being challenged and thrive off competing, this will help motivate you to get over your AA.
The biggest tips I can give that helped me are:
Don’t go out solely to pick up, if you do and you have one of them off nights you’re bound to encounter, it will fuck your whole night up and lower your confidence.
Use the 3 second rule, ok It doesn’t have to be exactly 3 seconds but if you see a set and think about opening you have already fucked up, AA will start to kick in. So go out, recognize an opportunity to open and approach before your brain has time to process what it is you’re planning on doing. Before you know it you’ll be hooked into a set and enjoying yourself.
When I was training for a fight, I used to suffer from horrific anxiety, it got so bad that I thought about quitting and never training again, I didn’t want to fight and I could never get asleep when ever I thought about it. So I stopped thinking about the fight, just totally blanked it from my mind up until I was actually facing my opponent but then it was too late to let anxiety effect me, before I knew it, some guys fist was in my face.
Although this has no relativity to pick up, the principle is the same, if you think about it too much it can fuck you up mentally.