I have extremely bad case of social anxiety, besides medication and therapy are there other ways to overcome i?
I didn’t know what it was at first I thought it was just “shyness” and that I would grow out of it well I developed social anxiety. I consider it a extreme case because it causes skip classes (college) to avoid during presentation and other “social activities”. I was actually suppose to graduate already but I’m still in school because this issue. My major is social work irronically and I don’t want to change it because I really want to help people but it would be impossible to do with the level of anxiety I feel in social settings.
Chosen Answer:
Besides engaging in therapy and/or taking medication it is also important to focus on self-esteem issues as they can be related to social anxiety issues. The first thing you need to do is increase your self esteem and change your way of thinking about social situations. You need to know your inner voice, your beliefs and your emotions. This should drive your positive thoughts and rational beliefs. Check out the 15 traits of high self esteem right here http://www.social-anxiety-solutions.com/high-self-esteem.html and practice them to increase anything you lack.
by: Ela
on: 4th November 10
Besides medication and therapy, all you can really do is face it. I know its hard, trust me, I’ve been in this position. Panic disorder. But you have to force yourself, slowly, to take on social situations. Eventually your anxiety will calm, and if not, you may need the therapy! Try some meditative breathing exercises to calm yourself when you are in class. There are things you can do, you just have to be willing to face your anxiety and do them.
Confidence does a lot to help, and just being the type of person who doesn’t give a sh*t if somebody thinks you’re weird or stupid, just stop caring so much what other people think yo.
I’m not trying to be mean, it’s just something I noticed in my life.
Dont give up. You can get out of it. I am quite certain
Try the following link
http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/disorder/#treatments
Besides engaging in therapy and/or taking medication it is also important to focus on self-esteem issues as they can be related to social anxiety issues. The first thing you need to do is increase your self esteem and change your way of thinking about social situations. You need to know your inner voice, your beliefs and your emotions. This should drive your positive thoughts and rational beliefs. Check out the 15 traits of high self esteem right here http://www.social-anxiety-solutions.com/high-self-esteem.html and practice them to increase anything you lack.
Hypnosis. before you blow this off, just hear me out. Hypnosis has connotations that cause people to think of magic, mind control, voodoo, and stuff like that. It’s actually really scientific though. Hypnotists look at it this way: Psychiatrists treat the symptoms, hypnosis finds the solution. Basically your sub conscious is like a computer program meaning that it doesn’t take logic and stuff into consideration, it just takes what you give it. Hypnosis teaches you to change negative thoughts into positive because your sub conscious doesn’t take negatives as well as it does positive. For example, someone who wants to quit being shy will have an attitude of: “I don’t want to be shy”, and for the computer program sub-conscious, it hears “I want to be shy” if that makes sense. It’s really just teaching you to twist negative thoughts into positive thoughts. I’m off my depression medication and feel pretty good, even if I’m not where I want to be yet. I seriously am EXACTLY like you. No matter how much you try you just can’t be yourself which you know is a good person. You really should try hypnosis and research it so you understand it first and you’re not skeptical about it.
Medicinal treatment is touch and go with mixed results, therapy is good but takes up a lot of your life, especially when you’re busy, I’d recommend Panic Away, it helped me some but I still get triggers in crowded social situations. Good Luck.