Prepared for the Battle of Social Anxiety? These 8 Ideas Can Be Useful

When you have social anxiety disorder, especially the most ordinary interactions with others can make you feel uncomfortable, dizzy, and terrified of being judged or rejected.

It might be challenging to participate in routine tasks due to severe social anxiety, including:

• chatting with colleagues
• purchasing food
• public dining
• attending courses at school
• arranging dates

Even while it’s not always as easy as throwing oneself into a crowd, controlling social anxiety is still a completely feasible goal.

Want to engage with others more naturally and feel more at ease in social settings? These 8 tactics provide a starting point.

1. Consult a counselor

Contrary to what some may believe, shyness, or feeling unpleasant and nervous around new people, is not the same as social anxiety. Being a mental health problem, social anxiety can sometimes be difficult to treat yourself.

Although there are many things you can do on your own to cope with your anxiety and discomfort, seeking professional help is always a smart place to start.

A qualified mental health specialist can:

• Provide clarification on the distinction between shyness and social anxiety
• help you understand the causes of social anxiety
• provide social skills, calming methods, and beneficial coping mechanisms
• Give advice on how to battle, swap out, or reframe negative beliefs

Additionally, therapy provides a secure setting where patients may perform graded exposure, one potential social anxiety treatment, in order to deal with anxiety-provoking events.

Your psychotherapist can suggest therapy sessions or support groups, which allow you the ability to interact with others who are also dealing with social anxiety and practice social skills.

Your therapist may also recommend a psychiatrist who can write you a prescription for social anxiety medication. When severe symptoms are somewhat relieved by medication, it is simpler to begin addressing them in treatment.

2. Examine specific circumstances that cause anxiety

Not every person with social anxiety experiences it in the same manner.

Any circumstance where you think that people might criticize you, such as placing an order at a restaurant or leaving the classroom during a lecture, can make you feel nervous. On the other hand, if people don’t want you to speak up or voice your opinions, you could feel mostly at ease just being in their company.

You can start your search for answers to overcome your emotions of anxiety by identifying the reasons and times when you experience them most frequently.

3. Confront your negative ideas

You probably waste a lot of time considering how those social circumstances you just mentioned could go wrong.

You might be concerned with:

• accidentally using vulgar or harsh language
• addressing someone incorrectly
• accidentally falling or spilling something on oneself
• When to avoid laughing, sneezing, or coughing
• showing signs of illness in public

These things do occasionally occur, and they can undoubtedly be uncomfortable in the short term. Though it could be unsettling to think of oneself in a similarly unpleasant circumstance, try to maintain calm.

Even if you do commit a minor social error, it isn’t always a sign that other people will think less of you. In reality, they might recall an instance in which they were in a comparable situation and instead give empathy and understanding. You might even meet a new buddy by bonding over uncomfortable past events.

Try genuine thinking, a strategy for confronting and changing out unhelpful thoughts when you start to feel overtaken by disturbing ones. You can attempt this by posing some simple questions to yourself about the situation that’s concerning you and offering honest, objective responses.

4. Take small steps

It’s okay to begin with minor changes while treating social anxiety. You’re not required to approach everyone you meet and offer to organize a meeting.

Here are a few concepts to consider:

• Avoid using the self-checkout at the store and try to start up a conversation with the worker instead.
• To ask a question in class, raise your hand.
• Admire the fashion sense of a student or coworker.
• Invite a few close friends and family members around for a modest gathering; socializing in your home can make you feel more at ease.

5. Play a role with those you can trust. 

All those negative results you fear? You can feel more equipped to deal with them if they arise during a discussion by practicing how to address them before.

Ask a family member or reliable friend to act out some typical talks with you.

Several situations:

• You have to tell the drugstore clerk what you’re looking for while you’re looking for something there.
• Your friend corrects you when you mispronounce the date’s name.
• During a meeting at work, the manager asks a question, and you answer incorrectly.
• In front of a sizable crowd, you slip and fall.

6. Take advantage of  relaxation techniques

Similar to general anxiety, social anxiety can cause unpleasant and overpowering bodily sensations, such as:

• sweating
• a racing heart
• having trouble breathing
• lightheadedness
• a sick stomach

Exercises that promote relaxation can assist in calming these physiological responses, making it simpler to control your worry, fear, and other mental symptoms.

7. Practice acts of kindness

Even though the connection between kindness and social anxiety might not seem obvious at first sight, it makes sense.

Generally speaking, social anxiety includes some level of criticism or rejection fear. However, if you’ve just done something helpful and kind, like agreeing to pick up your neighbor’s grocery order or giving a sick coworker a favorite soup, the person you helped is much more likely to have beneficial thoughts towards you than negative ones.

Regularly receiving this acceptance can help lessen your anxiety in social situations, so you might discover that talking with others progressively gets easier.

8. Reduce Your alcohol consumption

It frequently appears like a fantastic idea to reduce social anxiety and experience more ease in social situations by having one or two drinks. Undoubtedly, a little alcohol can make you feel more at ease, but it can also heighten your anxiety and make you feel worse.

If you frequently drink to control your social anxiety signs and symptoms, you can eventually get to the point where you can’t interact without it. Additionally, you could find that drinking more is necessary to achieve the same results.