Example of how you can handle a social situation
Here is an example of how you can act if you have decided to meet a friend and you you would rather go home. You feel exhausted from spending a whole day at work trying to talk, be happy and appear relaxed even though you feel tired and anxious.
My advice:
If you are meeting a friend that you feel close to even though you avoid talking about how you feel, I advice you to meet your friend. Try this time to talk about your anxiety. If you feel that you are a burden, think about how many times your friend has been talking about herself/himself and that you are doing the same for her/him. If you meet your friend, you feel bad but you keep it to yourself, there is a risk that you just want to avoid your friend since it takes energy to hide you true feelings.
A strategy if you are nervous about burdening someone can be to take the time so that you have control over how much you actually talk about yourself. If you have an issue with this it´s common that it ”feels” like you are talking much about yourself when in fact you are not.
Good Luck!
Cognitive Behavior Psycholgist Monica Emanell