How To Overcome Social Anxiety Step By Step

Social Anxiety can be a nightmare and goes hand in hand with anxiety attacks and/or panic attacks. Social Anxiety is sometimes for many the fear of speaking in front of a group, but that's the smaller part of the equation.

The worse side to it is the disabling effects it can have on some people who become housebound, which is called agoraphobia. They suffer from many fears, including the fear of acting stupid in front of people or afraid of social situations or people you don't know. It's a severe form of shyness.

Many people have it and suffer without treatment or learning ways to combat it. There are anxiety medications out there which do help like Klonapin which is for anxiety in general but this does not necessarily help with social anxiety. Sometimes an antipsychotic like Seroquel can help a person, who may be overly nervous due to paranoia- which can be part of social anxiety- a fear of being around or socializing with people.

One should find a professional, a therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist who can help access the situation and provide help. A therapist seen once or twice a week can help you talk about your issues with anxiety. A psychologist can help you delve deep into your anxiety issues, and is someone you would see less often. A psychiatrist would prescribe something for you if needed. And there are also self help books as well. Some of the ones below are helpful.

Steps to take to overcome social anxiety:

1. Get out there and try to overcome it. This is called exposure therapy. For example if you're afraid of going to social outings, make yourself go, and if you have a bad time go home, but most likely the more you do go, you have a chance at having a good time especially if you know a few people there.
2. Taking deep breaths is good.
3. Self help books out there and going to a therapist and getting to the root of your anxiety is probably the best. There is a reason people feel anxious, and it's very helpful to find out. A good therapist will help you recall the past and explore how stressful things made you feel and give you some suggestions on how to apply that to your present life.

Social anxiety is very real. If you have a friend who has it, be sure to show them this article and read about it as well. There are support groups out there and things you can do. Practicing mindfulness, which is basically being aware of your surroundings- your feet on the floor, what you smell, taste, see, and hear can really ground you when in moments of anxiety and distress.