They don't call it social lubricant for nothing :-)

I do the reading thing too! Sometimes I'll just pick up a magazine or something and ignore the rest of the party. I think that's partly being a compulsive reader, partly a reaction to too much stimulus.

I don't know where the shame comes from. I guess part of it came from friends who didn't understand, and part of it was me saying to myself, "You're never going to be popular/meet girls/be happy if you don't change." And then I couldn't. Thank god I'm over that.