Do people ever look at you in total confusion when you speak?

It's really beginning to take a toll on me. Throughout my life—since early childhood—I've struggled with social anxiety. Namely because, any time I open my mouth and speak, I'm met with the strangest looks and sometimes people will literally just walk away from me without responding at all...as if I didn't even say anything.

I'll give an example of the former: Tonight, at work, a co-worker was telling another co-worker and I about a weird incident she had earlier today. She was driving out of her neighborhood and—when she turned out onto the main street—she came across a car that had jumped a curb. So, she pulls up next to it and sees that there's a man behind the wheel, slumped over. She called 911, they placed her on hold but, luckily, another person pulled up behind her (a man). He hopped out of his truck, walked over, and banged on the hood of the car of the unconscious guy. The guy jolted awake, started up his car, and drove off.

I was like, "That's so bizarre! Was he drunk or something?" She goes, "Yeah...I mean, he was probably on something." So, then I proceeded to tell her a very quick recounting of strange/sort of similar thing that happened to me last year. I was driving down a busy street, later in the evening, when I noticed something strange on the opposite side of the street—and I just felt this urge to do a u-turn to see what it was. As I'm approaching, I see that it's a guy who had fallen off his bike! The bike was still on the bike trail, but his body was on the very edge of the curb, basically almost in the street. I immediately called 911 and was so thankful that I followed my instincts because who knows what could've happened to him.

I ended with, "Isn't that crazy??" To which she looked at me wild-eyed and said, "Yeah...ok, I'm going back to my station now."

This happens to me all the time. It's beyond weird and it's led me behave in one of two ways in social settings: Try my best to participate in conversations, but second guess every single thing that I say, which stresses me out. Or, remain silent (even though I would love to join in) out of fear of getting looked at like an idiot—which also stresses me out, because I feel like I'm suppressing my own voice.

I'm finding myself at a very strange crossroad. I'm soooo tired of giving other people this level of power over me. I'm ready to jump into a new reality where I don't give a single F about what anyone thinks of me...but, I don't know how because this has been a lifelong battle. So, it's like I'm feeling this tension between who I am/always have been (someone who feels dumb because of how people make me feel, even though I know that I'm not) and who I want to be (a person who is secure in their own intelligence so much so that nothing that anyone thinks, says, or does can shake that knowing).

Does anyone have any advice or have gone through a similar struggle?