How To Overcome Social Anxiety
The good news is that social anxiety, even if it's turned into social phobia, is very treatable.
The problem most people face is that treatment usually requires some discomfort in confronting the situations you fear, and this is not easy.
If you want to overcome social anxiety it's best to get some support – professional support, or an understanding friend, or even an online forum or support group. This will help you stay on the right track – that gently pushing of your comfort zone so that you neither retreat back into avoidance, nor get too distressed to continue.
All the techniques that help to overcome anxiety of other types will be helpful in overcoming social anxiety. In addition, there are some behaviour strategies that are specific for social anxiety, and you will want to tailor these and the strategies to change your thinking, to your own specific situation.
Here are some suggestions to help you overcome social anxiety:
- Breathing techniques to overcome anxiety
- Relaxation techniques to overcome anxiety
- Cognitive strategies (CBT) – changing your thinking
- Behaviour strategies such as graded exposure to feared situations.
You may also want to use medication or herbal or homeopathic remedies to help deal with the anxiety symptoms.
There's nothing wrong with using these, as long as you use them strategically to help with specific situations, and are practising other techniques that you can use long-term.
Breathing and relaxation techniques will have the same result – and help you feel more in control, since you are doing something for yourself.
To read more about how to overcome social anxiety, check out the resources here.
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Vanessa is a healer and practitioner of natural medicine with a background in clinical psychology.
She has a special interest in natural remedies for anxiety, depression, and other dysfunctions that keep us from living a full and joyful life.