Let’s Explore Social Anxiety
- mp50081
- Mar 23, 2022
- 5 min read
Let’s explore social anxiety! What causes it? What triggers it? Most importantly, how do you overcome social anxiety?
What Is Social Anxiety?
Social anxiety is an intense and persistent fear of being watched and judged by others. It causes you to avoid social situations, which not only ruins relationships but also leads to missed opportunities.
If you suffer from social anxiety, you might be mistaken for or labeled as shy as well as unfriendly.
Having social anxiety makes it hard to make friends. Despite wanting to connect with others, it can prevent you from forming human connections.
Social anxiety has many causes, but with the same end result.
What Are Some Causes?
Let’s explore what causes social anxiety!
Social anxiety has many causes. Sometimes it’s caused by one thing or multiple things at once. For example, social anxiety can be caused by both childhood trauma and mental illness at the same time.
Causes Include:
Bad Childhood Experiences: If you dealt with teasing, bullying, rejection, ridicule or even humiliation growing up, you’re more likely to suffer from social anxiety. Also, you’re more likely to suffer from it if you faced a lot of negative events such as family conflict or trauma.
Unusual Brain Functioning: Social anxiety can be a symptom of a mental disorder. It’s a common symptom of anxiety disorders, PTSD as well as bipolar disorder.
It Runs In Families: Social anxiety can run in your family. Chances are it’s genetically linked if you’re not the only one in your family who has it. A sibling might have it as well as a parent.
Personality Type: Having social anxiety can be linked to certain personality types. For example, many people who are naturally shy are more likely to have it.
What Are Some Symptoms?
Let’s explore the physical, mental as well as the behavioral symptoms of social anxiety.
Physical symptoms of social anxiety include fatigue, trembling as well as sweating. It can trigger an upset stomach, muscle tension as well as a fast heartbeat. Also, you might have a hard time breathing.
Social anxiety has mental symptoms that include not just anxiety but also depression as well as low self-esteem. Also, it can trigger panic attacks.
Having social anxiety leads to behavioral symptoms that revolve around relationships with other people. It’s common to have a fear of being judged by others and embarrassing yourself. Being obsessed with how you look as well as substance abuse issues are also common.
Here’s a related post: “How To Stop A Panic Attack?”
What Triggers Social Anxiety?
Social anxiety has many triggers. They can vary from person to person, also they vary depending on the situation.
Common triggers for social anxiety include relationships, stressful social situations, negative self-talk as well as lack of sleep.
Relationships can be stressful for anyone, especially since they’re a source of anxiety. It’s hard to form relationships, it’s harder if you have social anxiety. Being obsessed with what other people think of you as well as the fear of being judged are triggering.
A lot of stressful life events can trigger social anxiety. These include death of a loved one, job loss, divorce, moving, emotional problems, chronic illness as well as past trauma. It can be something that happens all of a sudden or something you expect overtime.
Social anxiety can lead to negative self-talk that affects your self esteem. For example, you might hold false beliefs about another person not liking you or even judging you.
There is a link between anxiety and lack of sleep.
Not getting enough sleep causes anxiety and also it can cause sleep problems. If you don’t get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep, it can take a toll on your mental health. As a result it can shape your outlook on life, energy level, motivation as well as emotions.
Let’s Explore How To Overcome Social Anxiety
Let’s explore how you can overcome social anxiety! How you’re able to overcome it depends on how severe it is.
Some people who suffer from social anxiety have mild symptoms. They might benefit from self-help or even life coaching. However, there are others that have severe symptoms and need help from a licensed professional.
Ways To Overcome Social Anxiety:
1. Work With A Therapist Or A Life Coach:
Working with a therapist will help you with treating social anxiety. They can help you with medication, cognitive therapy as well as talk therapy. Also, it can help you work with a life coach.
A life coach is a professional who helps people make progress in their lives. They help their clients to improve their relationships, careers as well as their day-to-day-lives. Life coaches also help their clients overcome social anxiety.
Here’s a related post: “How To Benefit From Mental Health Life Coaching?”
2. Exposure Therapy:
Exposure therapy involves facing something you fear until the anxiety goes down.
It’s important to get outside your comfort zone and slowly expose yourself to social situations. These can include crowded places, parties and also traveling to a new place with new people.
If you have social anxiety that’s not severe enough to render you housebound, you might be able to do exposure therapy on your own.
However, if you have severe symptoms such as panic attacks, exposure therapy might be too hard to do on your own. Also, it can make anxiety worse, especially if you’re being exposed to the thing you worked hard to avoid.
If you have severe social anxiety or even if it’s not severe, talk to a licensed professional before starting exposure therapy.
3. Reframe Your Anxiety:
Reframing is a technique that consists of identifying anxiety and then changing the way it’s viewed.
The negative thoughts that feed social anxiety are replaced with positive ones. As a result, you’ll break out of old thought patterns overtime.
Here’s a related post: “Habits That Lead To Success”
4. Lifestyle Changes:
Here’s an easy way to either reduce or overcome social anxiety! Lifestyle changes such as exercising more, changing your diet as well as spending time with positive people help your anxious mind.
By exercising more, you’re helping to release brain chemicals such as serotonin. It helps to boost your feelings of well-being as well as reduce anxiety.
Changing your diet helps to reduce anxiety. Start by switching from simple to complex carbs, or from processed foods to whole foods. By doing this you’ll stay full longer and also your body’s blood sugar will be normal. There’s a link between spikes in blood sugar and anxiety.
Even though it might be hard to do, surround yourself with positive people. By doing this, you’ll have an easier time getting exposed to social settings. As a result, you’re less likely to feel intense anxiety.
Have You Ever Faced Social Anxiety?
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