Give me challenges for exposure therapy!

TLDR; Tell me a small scary thing I can force myself to do to challenge my anxiety!

Hi friends! So my anxiety has gotten so much worse the past 2 years, I am literally afraid of doing most things, even things that I've done before with no problem. It's actually become quite debilitating unfortunately and I don't know how I let it get to this point. The problem is, my paramedic program told us that lack of confidence, being too shy and timid, or being too afraid to speak loudly or volunteer in class is grounds for us to be kicked out of the program. I've been telling myself  for a year that I would try to do some things I'm afraid of, but I never did.

So please, give me a challenge! I need ideas for scary things to do so I can have exposure therapy to beat this anxiety! Just things like ordering at a drive thru or talking to someone I don't know. Thank you all! <3

Update, I've been doing exposures! thank you all!

Progress blog: https://friendrewind.com/blog/exposure-therapy-update-34717

From my personal experience, my freshman year of high school we just got back from zoom classes and my social anxiety was so bad I couldn’t go into the building without a friend. Some methods I’ve used over time was joining clubs, growing connections through friends, volunteering for school events in the forum, and starting conversation with people around me. I am much better than I used to be like my legs don’t shake and I don’t feel like my soul has been drained after talking to someone, only in super anxious situations like one time when I tried asking for a guy’s number (it ended horribly 😭). One time I was jokingly volunteering during a school assembly to do chin ups on the pull up bar and I got picked and buddy. I have no arm strength. They asked how many do I think I can do and I said 1. I got 0. It was horrible too I was too short to reach the bar so the dude had to help me up and I was sweaty too and I felt so bad bro but hey. I did it. In front of like- 300 students but I did it.

But for baby steps, maybe try ordering something in person and then giving the person a compliment. Sometimes I find unique things about the person, maybe it’s their hair style or their hair color (bonus: start a conversation about what hair dye they used, extra bonus! Ask if they’ve dyed their hair any other colors! “Oh yea I’ve dyed my hair teal, pink and orange before.” “Ooo, I want to try teal someday, what brand would you suggest I’d use?”). Another thing to compliment on is tattoos, or outfits. “I like your tattoo, how long have you had it?” “I love your style, especially that skirt/top/ those shoes, etc”. And remember to take deep breaths, these are short interactions that people probably won’t remember but compliments will always make someone feel good in the moment!