What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
Social anxiety, sometimes known as social phobia, is a condition where you are afraid of being judged and rejected from social circles, being embarrassed, being negatively evaluated, or even accidentally offending people. It usually happens because you feel like there is something wrong with you, and if you don’t hide it, people will find out, and they’ll judge you for it.
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It can be defined as self-consciousness on steroids and can make you afraid of talking to strangers, making eye contact, dating, going to parties, and even eating in other people’s presence, to mention a few.
Social Phobia Should not be Confused with Being Shy:
While shyness is usually short term,
It may also come about through genetics. If you have a relative who experiences social anxiety, you are also more likely to experience it. To beat social anxiety disorder, you’ll have to evaluate your life and try to find out what your triggers are.
So, what can you do to overcome social anxiety?
1. Acceptance
Acceptance is the first and most crucial step. Knowing your condition, accepting it, and acknowledging how it affects you will help prepare you for the techniques you can use to overcome it.
2. Understand the symptoms
Understanding what your body and mind go through during anxiety and depression is very important. It will help you isolate the situations and make you more prepared to counter the symptoms you experience at that time, or anytime they come up again.
Some of the symptoms are:
- Blushing
- Sweating
- Hyperventilation
- Shaky hands
- Feeling dizzy
Causes of Social Anxiety Disorder
3. Learn your triggers
Triggers are those situations that happened in the past or even more recently that made you feel embarrassed or inferior.
Some underlying triggers for anxiety and depression can be:
- Being bullied as a child
- Working for an overbearing boss
- Childhood trauma
- Physical afflictions
Knowing what triggers your anxiety will help you come to terms with your fears, which will help you deal with your social stresses.
4. Face your fears
Most people find it hard facing situations that may make their life more difficult. However, this is a short-term solution.
Facing situations that trigger a lot of anxiety may be hard and, at times, seem almost impossible, but you have to be courageous and strong. Don’t give up. Doing this will help you in the long run and make you more confident.
5. Pause and breath and calm yourself down
Suppose you feel anxious while in any social situation, the first thing you should do is pause and breath. Don’t panic! Take 4-second breaths slowly, breathing in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth until you feel calmed down.
Have a calming, positive mantra that you can repeat to yourself to help you calm down the anxiety. It can either be a line in a poem, a prayer, a few lines from a song, etc.
Repeating such a mantra any time you are in such a situation will help relieve any tension from your body and clear any negative thoughts you have from your mind.
Effective Treatments for Social Anxiety Disorder
6. Change your mentality
Anxiety makes you think negatively about yourself and others. Know how to identify these types of thoughts and how you can tackle them and disproof them using logic and reasoning. Use positive affirmations whenever you are feeling anxious about anything. Look at the positive side of every situation.
Most people think about themselves. It would be best if you did not get caught up in this web. Decrease yourself, focus, and try to listen to other people more. You should not, however, assign more value to other people’s responses. Other people may judge you, but that is not a reflection of who you are, but it is instead a reflection of who they are as a person.
Tip: Write positive messages on your phone and sticky notes around your house to help you achieve a positive mentality.
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Conclusion
Social anxiety can be crippling. You should try and manage it as soon as possible. All these techniques can be an excellent way to start managing it on your own, but you should also look for medical help from a professional.
Treatment for anxiety includes therapy (talking to a psychologist) and medication (pills that will help you manage your hormones and the physical symptoms that come about as a result of experiencing severe anxiety. Seeing a qualified medical practitioner can help you get a proper assessment of the situation and help get the best treatment procedure for the condition.
Feel like you need professional help from a healthcare center to help you manage and eventually rid you of your chronic anxiety book an appointment with us EzCare Clinic and get help from licensed healthcare professionals.
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