You can face your Social Anxiety using Exposure Therapy

If you ever have experienced social anxiety, then you know just how difficult and challenging it can be to find yourself in social situations. However, a key factor to being able to overcome your fears is being able to face them. You can face your anxiety through a technique known as exposure therapy. Exposure therapy, simply put, incorporates the act of exposing yourself to the feared situation or anxiety inducing situation and learning ways of overcoming the fear. Exposure therapy is clinically proven to help individuals overcome fears and anxiety.  Below are some tips to aid in the process of exposing yourself to assist in overcoming anxiety: 

You can begin by identifying your catastrophic belief related to your anxiety. Your catastrophic belief is your belief associated with the anxiety inducing situation, that overestimates the likely hood of a negative event to occur. Most often, people with social anxiety overestimate the degree to which others are evaluating and criticizing them. Furthermore, they believe that they are unable to cope with the criticism, rather it be real or imagined criticism. 

Try the gradual exposure approach. This can be done by breaking down your fears into a series of steps, starting with mildly challenging steps and increasing in difficulty.  You can do this by creating a list of situations which elicit anxiety or fear and then number how much distress you would feel if you were in each situation. Then rank each situation from the least distressing to the most distressing situation. The first exposure attempt should be difficult enough to induce some anxiety but easy enough that you feel able to complete it. It is extremely important as to not try and confront a very difficult/feared situation to soon, because you have the potential to become overly anxious which can induce a panic attack. A negative experience such as this, would only strengthen the connection between the fear and the setting.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. A key factor to overcoming your anxiety is to repeatedly place yourself in the same situation until you feel very little to no anxiety inducing distress from the situation. This means placing yourself in the situation frequently enough to become habitual. If your exposures are too far apart your fear will rise again by the next time you attempt the exposure. 

Prolong the exposure. Another key factor to ensuring effectiveness of the exposure is to remain in the situation until your anxiety level decreases. It is very common behavior to want to escape the situation the moment the fear or anxiety appears. However, when we leave or avoid an anxiety inducing situation we will further strengthen our belief that the situation causes anxiety. Furthermore, due to the decrease in anxiety once out of the situation, we come to believe avoidance to be a helpful strategy. However, by staying in the situation until our anxiety decreases, we actually help ourselves to feel less anxiety when confronted with the same situation again. 

As we find ourselves in anxiety inducing situations, it is important to remember to remain in the situation until the anxiety has decreased, as this is an important aspect in being able to overcome the anxiety. However, if you feel your anxiety level is too high, you may find that you will benefit from taking a timeout from the feared situation. 

For example, if you were attending a wedding you can choose to either step outside for a moment or break away to the bathroom. During your timeout, you can allow yourself time to think over the situation and rationalize the anxiety. Remember what your catastrophic belief is and think about how it may be effecting your ability to overcome the situation. Try some deep breathing or other therapeutic stress reduction exercises if needed. Once, you feel less anxiety, you can then go back to the wedding. Keep reminding yourself of your goal and how essential the exposure is to your ability to overcome. 

Written By: Lara Pomnitz, graduate level intern.

Edited by Charity Loring, LMSW Loring Therapy, LLC http://www.loringtherapy.com/

6 steps to stand Up to Your Social Anxiety!

Most of us experience social anxiety of some sort.  Whether you’re fearful to speak in public or scared of large crowds, there are ways to control and reduce social anxiety.  Because social anxiety exists in many different forms and has multiple levels of severity, it is important for you to sit down and determine how much of an impact it’s having on your life.  

Here is a list of some of the most helpful things we can do to address social anxiety:

1. Try a self-help manual – self-help manuals can be great tools for battling social anxiety.  They’ll provide a multitude of example situations and options for coping with your anxiety.  They also often provide exercises to help calm your anxiety.
2. Work with a therapist – if you’re not having luck tackling social anxiety on your own, contact a therapist.  A therapist can help you identify reasons for your anxiety and will also help you find ways to cope and conquer your social anxiety.
3. Practice deep breathing every day – having a calm body and mind helps minimize your stress response to anxiety producing situations.  Regular breathing exercises daily can go a long way to helping you deal with social anxiety.
4. Create an exposure hierarchy – write down ten things that you fear the 

most and rank them on a 100 point scale (0 being no anxiety and 100 being the most anxiety you’ve ever felt).  Once you have the list created, you start doing those activities starting with the easiest one and moving your way up to the #1 anxiety producing item. 

1. Create objective goals – don’t start with the hardest thing on your list 

and then berate yourself for not being able to complete it.  Be smart and fair when setting your goals.  Don’t base your goals on other people or your own negative judgments.  If you set a goal to say a minimum of three comments at a work meeting,  you do say three comments but you stuttered, that is a success not a failure.  Your goal was to say three comments, forget about the fact that you stuttered and give yourself credit for meeting your goal!!

1. Keep a rational outlook – avoid telling yourself that you’ll fail or that 

there is no way you can accomplish a particular task.  Take a moment to stop and think logically about your situation.  Don’t look at things in an all or nothing fashion, give yourself a pat on the back for attempts and partial completions of tasks you normally would just avoid!!  

Try incorporating the above list into your life and you’ll surely find something that will help you to battle your social anxiety!!!

Written by: Amanda Furca, Graduate Level Intern, Loring Therapy LLC

Edited by: Charity M. Loring, LMSW

loringtherapy.com

Adapted from the article, “6 Ways to Overcome Social Anxiety” 

by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S.

URL:  http://psychcentral.com/lib/6-ways-to-overcome-social-anxiety/00017631

4 Steps to easing Social Anxiety

For those who suffer from social anxiety, they feel discomfort and fear when interacting with other people. They may worry about being judged negatively or looked down upon by others. Social anxiety can inhibit people from making meaningful relationships in a social setting. Below are some tips to help cope with social anxiety. 

1. Realize anxiety is natural 
1. Everyone experiences anxiety and at times it can be useful. What you are experiencing is natural, just in an unnecessary context. 
2. Remember Anxiety isn’t reality.
1. Tune into your thoughts and become aware of what you’re telling yourself when you’re in a social situation. Keep in mind your initial fear of social judgment may not be real.
3. Breath anxiety away
1. Try breathing techniques to address sudden instances of anxiety. This can be before or during a social situation. 
4. Shift your focus
1. Instead of focusing on the anxiety, change your focus to the task at hand. Pay less attention to your heart racing and more attention to the person your interacting with.  Set a small goal to switch from being in your own head to concentrating on the person in front of you like, finding one common interest with them or finding one interesting thing about them.

Written By: Jenai Muhammad, graduate level intern, Edited by Charity Loring, LMSW Loring Therapy, LLC www.loringtherapy.com Adapted from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shyness-is-nice/201305/must-have-coping-strategies-social-anxiety 

How You can overcome Social Anxiety

How Can You Overcome Social Anxiety?

Find The Source – Try to determine the source of the anxiety. Think back to when the problem started and look at how you have  or have not resolved it in the past as a guide to helping yourself now and in the future.
You don't have to be "The life of the Party" to be social - Just be you.  Focus on your strengths.  Are you a good listener? A kind person? A good observer? Do you share an interest with others? The world needs good communicators but it also needs good listeners.

Take a Deep Breath – Deep breathing exercises can help reduce stress, and in turn, reduce the anxiety response.
Take Small Steps – Try starting out with smaller groups and build up to larger ones.

Don’t Talk Yourself Out of It – Many times people talk themselves out of doing things they want to do by focusing on the negatives, try focusing on the positives when such thoughts occur.

Take Someone With You – Having a friend or someone you already know with you can help reduce social anxiety.

Distract Yourself – When you begin to feel anxious, try thinking about something else, perhaps think about what you are going to eat for lunch or dinner, etc. to occupy your mind.

Rehearse – Practice with a friend or small group prior to going to a larger group to build your confidence.

Take breaks when you need them - If you are feeling overwhelmed, there is nothing wrong with taking short breaks to recuperate. Go to the bathroom, go outside for fresh air etc.

If all else fails, seek the help of a Therapist - You don't have to be "crazy" to get therapy.  Therapy helps to exercise the mind and develop better coping skills.  If you go to the Gym to exercise your body, consider going to a Therapist to exercise your mind.

By Charity Loring, LMSW & James Clapper, Graduate Level Intern, Loring Therapy, LLC
www.Loringtherapy.com
Adapted from:  : http://voices.yahoo.com/10-tips-coping-social-anxiety-1882392.html