How you can handle your social anxiety
No matter why and when you got your social anxiety, it is common that it gets worse because when you try to get rid of the anxiety you behave in ways that makes it worse.
Here are a few examples of what you can do to handle your anxiety in social situations:
1. Find out what happens in situations where you feel anxiety. Analyze what you do to get rid of the anxiety.
2. Analyze what you worry about. often it´s about fear that other people will think that you are stupid, weird, insecure, boring etc.
3. Find out if you can to with someone about your problem. May be you don´t want to tell anyone out of fear that other people will see you symtoms more once you have revealed them. Another reasom might be that you worry that other people will think that you are weird since you have social anxiety.
A good reason sharing your problem with someone is that most of the time you get proof that your friend likes you in spite of your social anxiety. Besides that, talking to someone when you feel bad is usually a good strategy in order to feel better.
4. Be observant about if you step on your own needs in order to be liked by other people. May be you take all responsibility for a conversation, may be you listen to other people more than they listen to you, may be you force yourself to appear and cheerful all the time etc.
5. Be observant that your drive to appear in a certain way draws both attention and energy from you. The consequence might be that you don´t remember what is said and you can´t concentrate. It´s common that you try to adapt to other people and that you expect from yourself to appear in a certain, perfect way.
6. Register your ”should” thoughts during a day. If you have social anxiety you probably have low self-esteem and you critisize yourself a lot.
Cognitive Behavior Psychologist Monica Emanell