HOW TO OVERCOME SOCIAL ANXIETY

Overcoming social anxiety. Social anxiety belongs to the emotion fear and often stems from a deep fear when being around other people.

Almost 8% of the entire adult Dutch population, suffers from social anxiety. Social anxiety is the most common fear and one of the most profound. Social anxiety can cause low self-esteem, low self-confidence and enhance negative thinking about yourself.

Social anxiety can also cause you to freeze or block in certain situations and avoid situations or people. By using this coping strategy, people with social anxiety feel that if they avoid situations or people, they can not humiliate themselves in-front of others. They can also suffer from blocked emotions and physical anxiety symptoms.

Due to the increased fear, you can experience a continuous stream of negatieve thoughts, that can cause you to see things in a less optimistic way. The Negative thinking pattern leaves you in a vicious circle with thoughts such as: ”you see, they don’t like me, I am weird”, or, “Now they think I’m really stupid “. If these thoughts and experiences go on for too long, it can quickly develop into a social anxiety disorder.

Social anxiety often develops from an early age, this varies from childhood to late puberty. However, the people that often seek help are often at the age of 30. The reason that it can take longer for people to seek help, is often due to the feeling of shame and shyness.

People with social anxiety often avoid situations such as: public speaking or other formal interactions in groups, casual conversations, standing up for themselves and being watched by others.

People who suffer from social anxiety often think that they cannot overcome their social anxiety because it is part of who they are as a person. Luckily, it is good to know that it is possible to overcome your social anxiety!

To discover to which extent social anxiety is impacting your life, you can answer these questions: Do you suffer a lot from your social anxiety? Are they a major obstacle in your life? Is it preventing you from doing the things you would like to do? Can you live with it and function normally in daily life? These are questions you can ask yourself to get an indication of how much your social anxiety is impacting your life. And whether it is time to seek help overcoming your social anxiety.

At the heart of social anxiety is the fear of being judged negatively by others. This fear causes tension in almost every social situation. Such as: speaking in public, asking for information, asking directions, going out for dinner, asking someone to do something for you, making a phone call, meeting new people, speaking up in class or during meetings, during a job interview, when attending presentations or meetings, meeting new people.

In all of these situations, you can be afraid of stumbling, saying something wrong, feeling embarrassed in-front of others, being laughed at or criticized.

As a result, you may experience shaking, blushing, sweating, stuttering, a dry mouth or have nervous tics, orr you might have trouble expressing yourself, or you cannot find the right words at the right moment that may cause you to have black out in public situations.

You can fear that others will clearly see that you are nervous and that they may judge you negatively. These negative thoughts maybe due to a past experience, can increase your social anxiety and prevent you from doing the things you love and enjoying life!

If you recocgonize yourself in the symptoms, know that it is possible to overcome your social anxiety. It is so unnecessary to walk around with this any longer, knowing that you can do something about it.

Stop being afraid and start living. Life is too much fun and too short not to be yourself! Start today by taking the first step to overcome your social anxiety.

Social anxiety can also be part of the fear of failure. There are three kinds of fear of failure, and one of these fears is the social fear of failure.

Are you ready to overcome your social anxiety? Download our 3 free tips to reduce your social anxiety or social fear of failure instantly by clicking on the button below.