Friends, in this article we will talk about what is social anxiety? signs of social anxiety, how to deal with social anxiety? and what are the causes of social anxiety? So let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is social anxiety?
Living with social anxiety means that you feel scared, uncomfortable and nervous even in the most casual interactions.
But this problem also has a negative influence on other areas of your life. like
- maintain friendship
- Make new friends
- finding a partner
- Exploring Business or Learning Opportunities
- Just get out of the house to do some small work.
Every simple and easy task becomes 10× more difficult with social anxiety.
Many people are afraid to socialize and join large groups because they treat large groups like a thread where everyone will judge them.
Due to this fear of social anxiety, a socially intelligent person misses big events and opportunities in his life and this thing is also visible in his behaviour and body.
That is, just by the name of going somewhere, they start sweating. They start having anxiety or their stomach starts hurting. Every such system is born at their psychological level and from there it comes to their biology.
Causes of social anxiety
Psychology says that there can be many reasons for social anxiety.
Like genetic reasons i.e. if any of your family members do not like to socialize or maybe your parents were too overprotective and over caring about you. Because of which they never taught you to explore your environment and talk with strangers, due to which the insecurities of the parents came in the child.
Signs of social anxiety
Now in this article to clear your doubts, we will discuss those signs of social anxiety which will tell whether you are suffering from social anxiety or not and by understanding these signs, you can test your social anxiety.
1. Physiological Changes
The most simple sign to catch social anxiety is to notice what changes are taking place in your body.
Whenever it’s time to socialize, watch that
- Is there any change in your heart rate?
- Are your hands sweating?
- Has the colour of your face changed?
- Are you not feeling weak all of a sudden?
If you observe that every time you go to an event, all these changes start happening in your body and you do not feel like going to that event at all, then it is an absolutely clear sign that you are suffering from social anxiety.
You can see – 20 signs for test your emotional maturity.
2. Thinking about interactions
It is very common for normal people to talk to unknown or familiar people and they do not think much about it. Even the introvert also thinks that come on no one, I will be in that party payment for a while, so why not try to enjoy there and at the same time try that I can come back soon.
Whereas a socially intelligent person fantasizes and overthinks his interactions. like –
- He sees himself talking to others in his mind.
- Becoming his joke among the people, he starts visualizing everything.
- Every voice coming from inside her tells her that she is boring, ugly.
- He feels that he does not have any importance for others and hence there is no use for him to go anywhere.
Even if he is talking to someone in text, even if there is a delay in receiving the text from the person in front or he has not read the message or the message is too long or short, then a socially intelligent person is only about these small things. Begins to overthink. Like he must have got a late reply only because the person in front does not like him.
3. nervousness
Only you can notice small changes in your body. But nervousness is such a thing that people standing around you will also be able to see the ease in you.
- That is, you are not able to make eye contact while talking to people.
- You stammer while talking.
- Seeing someone, you start walking fast so that you do not have to talk to him.
Other people notice these small signs of social anxiety and they understand that either you are too weird or you simply do not like talking to people.
4. You have trouble making relationships.
With social anxiety, making friends or dating someone is almost impossible.
Where an introvert or shy person will just hesitate a little until he gets to know a person a little better and comes close with him.
On the other hand, a socially intelligent person is afraid of even the thought of talking to an unknown person and he either misses the opportunity of making new friends or partners or even gradually eliminates the existing relationships he has. Is. Just because he doesn’t see any point in meeting someone and maintaining the relationship.
A shy person may just feel a little awkward at the beginning of the relationship, but after getting to know the other person well, he opens up.
But for a socially intelligent person, this comfortable face never comes. He always feels superior and uncomfortable in front of others. Whether it is other people, his old friends, relatives or even his own family. He is afraid of everyone’s judgment.
You can see – How to spot micro expressions?
5. Social anxiety is affecting growth
You will find many introverts in the world who are highly successful, but you will never see a successful person who is socially inclined.
Successful people tell the story of their past, they also tell how they used to have social anxiety, but without over-reducing this problem, no person can achieve his maximum potential.
Socially intelligent people come in the middle of their growth.
For example, if an employee is very hardworking and he works a lot for his company but is socially inclined, then even if he sees the operation opportunity of promotion in front of him, he will not speak to him either. Due to the fear that he will have to present himself in front of the people and all the attention will fall on him.
Where many people are hungry for attention, the same socially intelligent people run away from more attention. Because according to them, people get free judgment with attention.
So if you start making your name and growing right so that you do not get into the attention of people, then understand that the problem of your social anxiety is very serious and you need to reduce it over as soon as possible.
6. You Avoid Socializing at All Coasts
If you are happy being alone, there is no problem with that and it is a very positive quality. But if you get sad seeing others having fun on social media even after being alone.
At the same time, if you are afraid to go out and have fun yourself, then this is a big problem. Because of your fear, you avoid party invitations, weddings and people’s calls so that you do not have to go among the people.
Even after going to an event, you hide in the corner so that people do not notice you and do not come to talk to you.
7. Are you conscious most of the time now?
Being self-conscious means being too concerned with yourself
- how do I look?
- How is my way of speaking?
- What position am I in society?
- How much do people like or dislike me?
Every situation sends a negative single towards your ego i.e. whenever something bad happens about your identity, that thing stings you and makes you self-conscious.
Whether someone has done this evil on your face or you just keep taking out your shortcomings in your mind.
8. Always Thinking About the Worst Outcome
It is a very healthy thing to be able to accurately approach a situation and see both its positive possibilities and negative possibilities.
But if a person just keeps thinking negative all the time and sits down to imagine every possible negative outcome before going anywhere, then it means that he is socially inclined.
If you have to go to a meeting to give a presentation, then you will start creating random scenarios in your mind that how you will spoil your presentation.
Even if you have gone to a birthday party, you will start thinking that you will make a mess there too.
So in such a situation, your safety comes in any situation, it does not matter to you because you are so much buried under the burden of your thoughts that you cannot see the truth, due to which your anxiety becomes worse.
9. You have panic attacks.
This is one of the extreme symptoms of social anxiety. That is when you are among people and
- The negative thoughts that make you self-conscious keep on growing inside you.
- finding it difficult to breathe.
- You will sweat a lot.
- There is trouble withstanding.
- You can’t even say anything.
This state can last for several hours. This is called a panic attack, during which the stress in you is very high and your body and mind in a way come on red alert.
So friends these were the 9 signs of social anxiety with the help of which you can test whether you are social or not.
Now let’s talk about how to deal with social anxiety?
How to become a better person?
How to deal with social anxiety?
However, whatever be the reason for the social anxiety, this problem can be over-reduced to a great extent. If you focus on fixing it directly.
So now let’s talk about those solutions which will tell us how to deal with social anxiety?
1. Shift Focus Externally
One of the big reasons for having social anxiety is that we just get lost in thoughts about what other people might be thinking of us.
At a party or a gathering, we are trying to avoid people’s eyes and assume that other people may be considering us as awkward, they may be thinking that we are not looking good today, that we talk strangely or we are conscious about the way of walking.
Every thought that diverts your attention away from others and brings it upon you will make you self-conscious and insecure.
It is a defence mechanism that a person repeats over a long period to make a lesson in his behaviour and personality.
How to shifts focus externally?
You can break this behaviour pattern by shifting your focus away from yourself and focusing on others.
First of all, stop stealing your eyes from everyone and stop hiding. Without seeing people, you will not be able to calculate what they will be thinking or what they will do next so that you will keep filling this missing information with your imagination.
So go to any event and meet people you know.
Make eye contact with them.
Even if you don’t know anyone, keep your body language open and keep your Ayush towards people.
Look at strangers and think about what you can talk to them about.
For example, if you don’t know most of the people at a party. But you are looking for many interesting people to talk to and you want to make new friends, then go to them and to reduce your anxiety, first of all, ask them a direct question or give them any compliment. If their clothes are a little different or better, then comment on them or their smile, their shoes whatever, remember your words do not matter in such a situation because you do not want to impress anyone. You just want to go beyond your fears and open yourself.
Along with this, whenever you are speaking something in front of a group, do not think in your mind that you are talking to many people at once, instead talk to people one by one and one thing at a time. While speaking, keep your eyes on only one person.
This is because you already know how to talk one to one. Every human at least knows how to talk to their siblings, best friends or parents without getting angry.
But speaking in front of an audience is very difficult, that’s why even if you are in a crowd, keep your focus on only one person. With this, you will be able to make your socializing task manageable and act better.
2. Increase exposure gradually
Chances are high that your social anxiety is a learned pattern. Because of which he cannot be forgotten in 1 day. You will have to practice gradually reducing yours over this pattern.
In psychology, it is called exposure therapy and it is so effective in treating people because to root out any of your fears, you have to go to its roots and pay a fee.
But if you have suddenly pushed yourself into the darkness of your fear without any preparation for example, if you have been feeling socially anxious for too long. But if a person asks you to give a speech by standing on the stage in front of several hundred people, then there are chances that that thing will be like torture for you and now you will not be able to speak much.
Solution –
Prepare yourself slowly by talking to people and after that go to the group and introduce yourself and meet new people. Over time, make yourself comfortable to go into different situations, and within a short time, your social anxiety will already be very less and you will be able to socialize with people very easily.
Clinical psychologist Lorie Decarvalho says that humans love to avoid fear. But this adds to their difficulties because their mind starts suppressing the pain. That’s why exposure therapy is a very good way by which a person can relive his fear and recover within a short time.
3. Study the problem
To use this method, you can question your fear by directly looking into his eyes. This means whenever you are afraid to go to which event, then ask yourself why I am so scared. At most what will happen to me. This question will help you test the strength of your scary thoughts and break your old beliefs.
Because many times we are scaring ourselves by telling a false story. Whereas in reality when you think that how many people will notice you in public and even if someone notices you and judges you, then how does it affect your reality. You cannot change the thoughts of others, but you can control your thoughts.
So start questioning your social anxiety and see how quickly it starts to falter.
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4. Practice detachment from thoughts
Every wise person knows that it is foolish not to get attached to his mind and heart and to take his urges more seriously. The more you identify yourself with your thoughts and your body, the stronger your ego will be.
Normally we understand that being ego means being arrogant or considering ourselves superior to others. But even if you say that-
I am the best, I do not deserve anything,I am a very important person,I am strange,I am superior and inferior,these people hurt me.
So all these good and bad statements only show your strong ego because your focus is not going away from me. You are so concerned with yourself that you can’t even see the world as a tease by going out of your mind.
The same thing happens with social anxiety. The ego of a socially intelligent person is very strong because there is always a fear of self-respect, safety in his mind and he is very much influenced by the judgment of the people.
How to detach from thoughts
That’s why another solid way to reduce your social anxiety is to keep your negativity-filled mind away from you. That is, reminding yourself that thoughts only come from memory and are not reality.
To be entangled in your thoughts means to be entangled in your past and you cannot get away from your past until you have created a distance between yourself and your thoughts. By making a distance, you are now able to see things without their noise and get a higher perspective. Fighting from a distance also looks like peace.
So before going to sleep and as soon as you wake up, remind yourself that you are not taking care of yourself. Look at other people and your insecurities from a distance and understand that nobody cares.
Today you are afraid of something but tomorrow this fear will not matter. People will judge you today for some trivial matter and forget that thing tomorrow. But if you start living for tomorrow, you will lose today.
So start practising detachment from your mind and thoughts from today and from now on.
These are the 4 best ways to understand that how deal with your social anxiety?
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FAQ about social anxiety.
What is social anxiety meaning?
Living with social anxiety means that you feel scared, uncomfortable and nervous even in the most casual interactions.
What is the deference between introvert and a socially anxious person?
Being socially anxious is very different from being introverted. Because an introvert is someone who just likes to be alone, whereas a social naughty person is someone who wants to enjoy, talk and make memories with other people. But he is afraid to think that if If he goes among people, he will judge him, he will analyze him, he will be evil or he will make a mistake and people will make fun of him.
What is the reason behind social anxiety?
2 main reason behind social anxiety
1. Genetic
2. Over care and over protective perents
How to test social anxiety?
You can see these 9 signs of social anxiety which is given above and test your social anxiety.
How to treat social anxiety?
4 best way to treat social anxiety –
1. Shift Focus Externally.
2. Increase exposure gradually.
3. Study the problem.
4. Practice detachment from thoughts.
So, friends, this was our article in which we talked about what is social anxiety?
Signs of social anxiety
The reason behind social anxiety?
How to deal with social anxiety?
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