Hey guys, I'm 25 and live right outside NYC.

At 25 I still find myself struggling when approaching girls and texting them after once I get their number.

The biggest problem with me is that I don't approach because I think to much of the (negative) reaction the girl will give me and basically am pathetically nervous about being judged.

If I ever get to the point of having a conversation with a girl, I tend to freeze up and am constantly thinking what to say, how to impress her, etc. This is all going through my head which is probably why I feel conversations don't flow as well as if I would just act myself in front of women. This is the opposite as if I met another guy from a friend and were just having a normal conversation. I don't think twice what the guy thinks and I can have a normal convo and friendly banter always comes in which I feel helps me break in the conversation. I dont have the balls to do this with women. The worst feeling is seeing the tons of beautiful women in bars in NYC, and I just hold myself back. Its frustrating and sometimes leads to me saying "F it" and I go for it and can careless what the woman would think. I don't know why I cant do this regularly.

If I get lucky enough to get her number (i have a large sense self depreciation), I would usually text them later that night saying it was fun to meet her or whatever. Once they respond, I'm at a standstill since I'm always thinking of things to talk about and half the time it turns out to be simple exchanges without having much depth in the conversation.

Alot of the things I would want to say (being myself rather than being nervous), I hold myself back since I guess I am not confident in what I bring to the table..

I'm 25, decent looking, fairly educated and don't feel I should be having this problem at my age.

Any pointers will be much appreciated! This sub-reddit is awesome and I feel this is the best place to ask for advice.

Thank you !!!