Whatever metaphor you want to use. I believe in the Japanese concept of 'spirit' in all things, so to me it is spiritual in the Eastern sense.

I was in the EXACT same situation as you. I was a smoker and I would smoke MORE around people. I had ridiculous amounts of social anxiety.

Smoking was my crutch to comfort me, to keep me sane.

I quit smoking and withdrawal symptoms only heightened the pain.

But I realized my problem was a SPIRITUAL one. I kept doing the things I thought I was supposed to be doing to please others. I was not a happy person. I saw myself in the wrong light. I saw people in the wrong light. Smoking was my crutch to get me through the day.

DO NOT listen to people telling you to take Xanax or other psychoactive drugs. You are replacing one brain altering chemical with another.

The problem is RELIANCE on drugs. That's the problem. When you are a smoker, or a drinker, or a heroin addict you are tinkering with your own machinery in a radical way. You are no longer the human you were intended to be my aeons of evolution. Your genetic machinery is now operating with a wrench in the gears. Stay away from people telling you to cure your SPIRITUAL problem with drugs.

Listen to your heart man. If stuff causes you anxiety -- maybe there's a reason for it! Maybe you are in situations you do not really want to be in! Or maybe you just have a perceptual problem. You interpret events and actions in a harmful (to you) way. Learn to chill. Learn to not let it get to you. Trust me.. quitting will FORCE you to do that, or else you will go back to smoking.

It's a really nice trial by fire if you get through it.

Or maybe there is no perceptual solution. Maybe you hate where you are and smoking is the only sane thing you have. CHANGE IT THEN!

Do what you want in life! Move to the country! Go to China! Join the peace corps and help people! Or become a librarian or a researcher and spend less time around people. Or maybe it's the KIND of people you are around. Maybe they are all people you dislike fundamentally. Maybe you are a creative sensitive type and they are all bean counters. Or the opposite. I dunno you, I am just conjecturing. There's lots of different kinds of people ijn the world. Find people like yourself and maybe your anxieties will be lessened.

Listen to your body and your mind! Your genetics has evolved over thousands of generations to be a certain way. Your personality has evolved over your lifetime to be a certain way top. Listen to them. Find your calling.

It's clear to me you are not entirely at peace with where you are, so change it, or change yourself!

Saying you smoke because of social anxiety just cries out to me: I WANT TO GROW BUT DON'T KNOW HOW. Well, then you definitely should quit smoking and start growing. You will be forced to really quickly. Smoking is only stunting your own personal development. Trust me, it is. And I was in the same pickle as you my man. Really. I believed smoking was all I had to get me through the day. And in some sense, it was true.. partially because I was just not embracing my potential. I am still working on it, but smoking definitely didn't help. Like I said, wrench in the works..

Let me repeat: You should not be walking through life in a state of anxiety. Especially if you live in a free and prosperous society like that of Western Europe the North America. You DEFINITELY need to find out why you are anxious and either change it (by being a man about it and conquering your fears) or, if that proves to be a waste of time -- change the situation. Listen to your heart, but also temper it with some courage and strength.

I suggest you quit at some point though.

Quitting forces you to deal with stuff. Why? There's nothing like being in tremendous physical pain to give you spiritual clarity about what is important to you in life. There's a reason why all major religions prescribe pain or fasting as a form of spiritual cleansing.

So quitting smoking, as odd as it may sound, may provide you with some spiritual answers and spiritual change if you embrace them.

It forced me to be more chill and not take things so seriously. I realized a lot of my social anxiety stemmed from my own hangups and my own perfectionism. I became chiller and so can you.

So quit now. It only gets harder if you are over 30 or whatever. Over 40 and it's nearly impossible.

That's my advice.