Fixing my Speech

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I sat down with a friend lately talking about my frustrations and issues down the line in my life. After a fair bit of talk he told me what he thinks is my problem: I talk too formally and that makes people think I always have my guard up.

This is actually true as, throughout my time growing up, I was bullied. The one time I built too much confidence during my teen years where, granted, I acted like a twat, a lot of my former friends turned on me and began to bully me. That said I didn't act like a bastard to them or to many, I just acted stuck up my own ass. During this time I also said stuff which I thought was in confidence and then, high school being high school, it would spread like wild fire and turned a whole year of high school into hell.

Now I tend to be very much on guard as I go through periods of anxiety where I become paranoid about giving off the wrong impression or slipping up and saying something bad or inappropriate and having that come back to mulch me. But since I am in my mid twenties now and trying to build up a proper career, I find myself needing to address this. My friend who has known me and I him since a child was the one who said I should look to it.

For further background since I was young, video games has been my main form of entertainment but developed too into a means of escapism. Same with browsing here and chatting to people online versus in person.

What should I do and how should I do it?