Social anxiety is more than just being shy or getting butterflies before a social outing, speech, or interview.
You might be avoiding certain situations because it causes too much stress and you might excessively worry about what people might think of you.
Perhaps you turn to drug or alcohol use to cope with feelings of anxiety and worry in social settings.
When your feelings of distress and social anxiety get to the point where it is impacting how you are living your everyday life, you might be suffering from social anxiety disorder.
The symptoms of social anxiety disorder can fall into three types: mental, physical, and behavioral. Negative feelings of judgment from others can feel overwhelming and spark feelings of rejection and disapproval.
Often people with social anxiety look for signs to confirm their own negative feelings about themselves.
Feelings of powerlessness can be overwhelming but there are things you can do to ease some of those negative thoughts and feelings flooding your mind.
You often hear people saying “Just think of the positives” and “It’s no big deal”, although they might be trying to help, this isn’t very useful.
You might be overexaggerating the possible scenarios that might occur, instead think of what is likely to happen. If you are in the midst of physically losing control (rapid heartbeat, shaky, sweatiness or even light-headed), try to pay attention to your breathing.
Belly breathing exercises let your body feel more relaxed and help with the shallowing of your breath when you are feeling anxious.
Even if you try some of these techniques, you may still struggle, and that doesn’t mean you have failed. Feeling anxious is more common than you think, you are only human after all.
*This infographic was brought to us by FIX.com
This website uses cookies.