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