Overcoming Social Anxiety

Visualize yourself in a social setting where there are a lot of people surrounding you. Whether that be at school, work, party, shopping, etc. Your heart feels like it's beating a mile per minute, your hands begin to shake and sweat, your body starts to tremble. Nausea, lightheadedness, and blurred vision begins to plague you. It appears as though everyone in the room is watching you and it becomes difficult to initiate or engage in conversations due to fear of rejection. You are most likely experiencing social anxiety. Since a very early age, I've had to deal with this mental disorder. Until now, I've put zero thought into the idea of overcoming this fear. However, I have decided to make it a personal goal to gain control over it with several

While it's a tremendous act of courage being able to persevere with exposing myself to social situations, it is also important to create goals that I want to accomplish during each one. In addition to my first idea in overcoming my social anxiety, my second idea is to devise a list of smaller goals for each situation I put myself in. For example, if the setting takes place in a classroom full of students, I will make it a goal to contribute and participate in group activities and discussions. If the setting is at a work or club meeting, I will make an effort to pitch at least one of my ideas or comment on an issue. By creating objective goals and continuously accomplishing something new in each social situation, I will be making it a habit to be assertive and respect my own needs. Thus, improving and increasing my performance. As a result, creating objective goals is a step that is crucial to the achievement of overcoming my social anxiety due to how it will help to develop and improve my social

Safety behaviors infringe on someone's abilities to get past the anxiety in situations. Like myself, some people exhibit behaviors that they use as coping mechanisms to contain their anxiety and make them feel safer in the present moment. Some examples of those superstitious behaviors include averting eye contact with others to avoid being noticed, taking on specific roles that don't include social interaction, selecting an area in the room that's more secluded from everyone else, etc. Instead of avoiding social interaction when I'm in social situations, I will instead make a conscious effort to be present. By being present in situations and eliminating those safety behaviors, I will be learning to do the opposite of what my anxiety tells me to do, play it safe and keep out of sight, and instead I'll learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

In essence, social anxiety is one of the most common mental disorders that affects millions of people. It is also amongst one of the most difficult disorders to fully eradicate. Those who suffer from this mental health condition often feel that it is impossible to overcome this phobia or they oftentimes don't go through with it once they've started. However, by creating an exposure hierarchy, creating objective goals, challenging my anxious thoughts, and eliminating safety behaviors, I will at least be able to subside