How to Overcome Social Anxiety
If you suffer from social anxiety then you know just how distressing this state can be for you. The worst thing about it for many sufferers is that they feel misunderstood and that they have nobody to turn to. People with social anxiety phobias fear the very thought of social occasions. The very thought of being in the presence of so many strange people is enough for many sufferers to simply stay at home alone.
For those who pluck up the courage to face their fear, they will often sabotage their efforts when their anxiety gets too much for them and simply go back home. If this sounds like you then it’s likely that you repeat this pattern over and over again. Well you need to break this cycle. When your behaviour becomes so ingrained it’s easy to focus on the experiences you have had before and to expect the same outcome the next time you try something. As a result it’s easy to focus on what you don’t want and this just serves to undermine your efforts of overcoming your social anxiety.
Click here to find out how to overcome social anxiety with The Linden Method
The way to turn this around and overcome social anxiety is to begin focusing on what you do want from your life from now on instead of what has happened to you in the past. Imagine what your life would be like if all of a sudden you were free of your social anxiety. Make this your goal. Try keeping a journal and write down exactly what it is like to be free of anxiety. Try to make this goal as real as possible. The more real you can make it the easier it will be to hold this vision in your mind.
When you start to experience anxiety you prolong those anxious feelings by fuelling them with your fear. You will find that your consciousness probably becomes centred at the top of your head as your mind fills with worry. Try to distract your attention by focussing on what is happening in the world around you. Use all of your senses to make the outside world become the centre of your attention instead of your inner world of worry.
If all of those strange people are starting to look intimidating and scary use your powers of visualization to turn them into something comical. Try to imagine that the people are wearing clown noses for instance. Just make everybody look as silly as possible in your minds eye and they will start to seem a lot less scary. Laughter is a great anxiety remedy. I’m not saying you should laugh at people. But if you can use your imagination to bring a sense of humour to how you see your situation it will help you overcome your social anxiety.
Try setting yourself small challenges every day. Even it’s just saying hello or smiling to a passerby in the street. Set yourself lots of little challenges such as these to do each day. Keep a journal to record your progress. People with social phobias will take any perceived criticism or judgement from other people very personally and they will often dwell on it long after the event. Try treating these experiences as learning experiences. Think about what you could have done differently in that situation and approach similar situations differently next time.
The way to overcome social anxiety is through repeated exposure to the very situations you most fear. You know how hard it is for most other people to understand your situation. Therefore you can’t rely on other people to help you. You need to overcome social anxiety by yourself. It can be done as long as you don’t treat the inevitable failures along the way as the end of the world.
One person who overcame social anxiety is Charles Linden. He went on to create his own self treatment program for people with anxiety disorders such as social anxiety. You can read more about his Linden Method at the link below...
Click here to find out how to overcome social anxiety with The Linden Method