![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/social-13-300x300.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Social anxiety is when you feel nervous, tense or uncomfortable in social situations because you\u2019re worried other people are judging you. Almost everyone has experienced social anxiety at one point or another. Life is rife with moments of self-consciousness\u2013from job interviews to first dates, we all occasionally feel nervous around other people. But social anxiety becomes a problem when it\u2019s so frequent or intense that it gets in the way of important things in your life. You might not apply for a dream job because it requires an interview, or you might find it hard to be around even family and friends because you\u2019re so worried about what they think of you.<\/p>\n
If social anxiety has prevented you from doing the things you want, such as making new friends or going on dates, you\u2019re not alone. Social anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions in the United States, affecting 15 million adult Americans each year.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/social-14-150x150.png\")
<\/p>\n
While social anxiety always involves a fear of being judged negatively, the actual situations that cause it can vary greatly from person to person. Many people with social anxiety feel nervous in most situations that involve interacting with or performing in front of other people. But some people only experience social anxiety in particular situations, such as speaking in front of others or hosting an event. For example, a person who is typically very outgoing and comfortable talking to strangers at parties might only have social anxiety when giving presentations. In fact, public speaking is one of the most common specific forms of social anxiety.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/social-8-150x150.png\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/heart-2-150x150.png\")
<\/p>\n
People often think social anxiety is just a feeling, but it actually has four components: thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviors. Most people might begin recognizing their social anxiety when they notice nervousness also is accompanied by physical symptoms such as trembling and crying. When you\u2019re anxious, the four components interact with and build upon each other, causing a cycle of anxiety. For example, here\u2019s how your anxiety might manifest itself if you\u2019re nervous about giving a presentation at work:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thoughts:<\/strong><\/p>\n Often, your anxiety will begin with a negative thought, such as \u201cI\u2019m going to screw up\u201d or \u201cPeople will think I\u2019m stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n Feelings:<\/strong><\/p>\n These thoughts cause you to feel negative emotions, such as stress or worry.<\/p>\n Physical Response:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Behaviors:<\/strong>\u00a0You try reducing your anxiety with conscious or unconscious actions, such as averting your gaze or hiding behind the podium (to prevent people from seeing you shake). Acting this way may make you think everyone else notices you look stiff (an anxious thought), which then can cause you to feel even more stressed (an anxious feeling).<\/p>\n People with social anxiety often don\u2019t realize when their behavior is being driven by anxiety. People with social anxiety tend to exhibit three types of behaviors:<\/p>\n If you think you have social anxiety, the most important question to ask yourself is whether it prevents you from achieving your goals. For example, we mentioned earlier that a large majority of people report a fear of public speaking. You might be one of them. But if your job or goals don\u2019t require public speaking, then being afraid of it might not be a big deal. On the other hand, if your fear is keeping you from getting the promotion you want, or getting in the way of an important personal goal, such as giving a speech at your sister\u2019s wedding, then you might consider looking for help.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The cognitive part of CBT is based on the idea that it\u2019s not a social situation that makes you anxious, but your interpretation of that situation. For example, if you\u2019re having dinner with a friend and she leaves early, you can interpret these several ways. You might think she found dinner with you boring (leading you to feel anxious), or you might think she had a long day and was tired (and feel neutral). People with social anxiety tend to interpret situations in a disproportionately negative way. CBT teaches you to recognize and embrace the existence of alternative interpretations, allowing you to identify if other possible explanations are less likely to trigger your anxiety.<\/p>\n The behavioral part of CBT involves gradually facing the situations that make you anxious to overcome your fear of them. (This exercise is called an \u201cexposure.\u201d) You probably imagine the worst-case scenario will happen if you confront these situations, so you tend to avoid them. However, when you actually place yourself in the situations you fear, you have two critical realizations: First, the bad outcome you fear happens less often than you think. Second, even if it does happen, you can handle it. It\u2019s key that exposures are gradual: You start small, with a situation that causes some anxiety but is doable. Then work your way up to situations that make you really anxious.<\/p>\n For example, if giving a presentation makes you extremely anxious, to the point where you might even call in sick to avoid it, your first exposure would be a similar but less anxiety-inducing situation, such as telling a story to a group of friends. Once you learn to get comfortable in these practice situations, you\u2019ll be able to take your newfound confidence to more difficult situations you greatly fear or have been avoiding.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here are some CBT-based tips for dealing with social anxiety at the moment:<\/p>\n We get lots of questions about social anxiety. People want to know if everyone feels the way they do or if their social habits are \u2018normal.\u2019 I also know that some forms of social anxiety are beyond the advice on this blog. Since I am not an expert in social anxiety, I found someone to tackle this topic for us.\u00a0Joyable is an online service to help tackle social anxiety. I was unsure of what to expect at first, but after completing the entire program, I was blown away. After I finished the program, I reached out to them to do a guest post for our blog on social anxiety and how Joyable helps.<\/p>\n Just to be clear, they are not a sponsor, they are not paying for this coverage and I get no benefit if you use Joyable. I am posting this because I think their perspective is really interesting and I think it can help people\u2014it helped me. They have been wonderful and put together this great post for us. I hope you enjoy it and please let me know if you end up using Joyable and what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is social anxiety? Social anxiety is when you feel nervous, tense or uncomfortable in social situations because you\u2019re worried other people are judging you. Almost everyone has experienced social anxiety at one point or another. Life is rife with moments of self-consciousness\u2013from job interviews to first dates, we all occasionally feel nervous around other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-427","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11782"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11855,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions\/11855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/thinking-brain-gears-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/feeling-silly-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/fidget2-150x150.jpg\")
\u00a0<\/strong>Your body reacts to your negative thoughts and feelings with a physical response, such as blushing, sweating or shaking.<\/p>\n\n
What to do if you have social anxiety<\/h2>\n
Tips for People with Social Anxiety<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/fidget1-150x150.jpg\")
\u00a0<\/strong>Social anxiety is common, and many people experience it. If you\u2019re at a party and feel really anxious about introducing yourself to new people, remember that other people might feel the same way.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/joints-Inflmmed-150x150.jpg\")
<\/li>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/confident-interview-greeting-150x150.jpg\")
<\/strong>When you\u2019re feeling anxious, take a moment and try identifying the anxious thoughts running through your head. Challenge them by asking questions such as: \u201cWhat evidence do I have this is true?\u201d and \u201cIs there another explanation for what happened?\u201d If someone responds curtly to you, you may have the anxious thought that \u201cThey think I\u2019m boring.\u201d What if you challenged that thought and instead considered another explanation: Maybe they were in a hurry, or maybe they were already on their way to talk to someone else when you approached them.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/study-thinking-Copy-150x150.jpg\")
<\/li>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/study-connections-150x150.jpg\")
<\/li>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/ConfidentBodyLanguage-150x150.jpg\")
<\/strong>Often, our worries about an upcoming situation are worse than the situation itself. If you\u2019re worried about striking up a conversation because you think you\u2019ll have nothing to say, remind yourself that you only have to start with \u201cHello.\u201d Once you begin the conversation, it gets a lot easier.![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/kids-150x150.jpg\")
<\/li>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/study-scenery-Copy-150x150.jpg\")
<\/li>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/foot-150x150.jpg\")
<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n