What exactly is it?

1) Some people say it is an evolutionary thing, because speaking to the wrong woman when we were cave men could result in death.

2) Some people say its the fact we have a mental image playing in our heads, where we approach a woman and the world ends or something?

3) Some people say, its because we are outcome dependent,

Anyway, whatever it is, in my own experiences, it exists. Its a thing.

Especially at the start of an evening, I need a warm up set or two, then the anxiety ceases. The thing is, a warm up set is just that, a throw away set I use to warm up and get those social muscles flexing. Like who would of thought that as a human being, communicating with another human being could induce so much anxiety?

Yet once I have it my mind Im doing a warm up set, all this anxiety ceases. So I am going with option 3. Further to this, me and my mates used to play a game (I mainly ride solo these days, wings come and go). The object was to see who could get the most brutal rejection. But you had to play by the rules. Nothing offensive, respect the persons space, be civil, etc. You know what, no one ever won this game.

As we were approaching with the outcome dependence on being rejected harshly, there was no anxiety. Also, we saw it as fun. So we would approach women in a fun mood, waiting for the "scorched earth rejection", it never happened.

Even chucking in the "Apocolypse Opener" into this game never really got a bad rejection. Because we were in a fun happy state and instead of fearing rejection, we fucking wanted it. Alas, we never got it.