How To Explain Social Anxiety To Someone

Socially Interacting With Co

Step 1: Say hello to your co-workers.

Step 2: Ask a co-worker a work-related question.

Step 3: Ask a co-worker what they did over the weekend.

Step 4: Sit in the break room with co-workers during your coffee break.

Step 5: Eat lunch in the break room with your co-workers.

Step 6: Eat lunch in the break room and make small talk with one or more of your coworkers, such as talking about the weather, sports, or current events.

Step 7: Ask a co-worker to go for a coffee or drink after work.

Step 8: Go out for lunch with a group of co-workers.

Step 9: Share personal information about yourself with one or more co-workers.

Step 10: Attend a staff party with your co-workers.

Description Of Anxiety And Associated Behaviours

It is pretty standard for family members, coworkers, and friends of an individual with anxiety to feel confused regarding their loved ones diagnosis. This confusion may sometimes come off as the form of a judgment that can quickly devastate someone with anxiety.

To avoid feeling this way, explain how anxiety might affect your everyday behaviours to your loved ones. Lets discuss some examples of anxiety-associated behaviours and how you can present them to others simply yet effectively.

How To Find Help For Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety, as well as the other anxiety disorders, can be successfully treated. In seeking support for this problem, search for a specialist — someone who understands this problem well and knows from experience how to treat it.

Become an informed client and ask questions. For example, does the therapist understand that you feel very self-conscious and that others are watching and forming a negative evaluation about you? or do they minimize what youre saying and just say, “No, No, No, youre fine … you’re just exaggerating….” or expect you to go out and do unreasonable “exposures”?

It is true that we who have lived through social anxiety do realize our mind is many times irrational and we over-exaggerate, but it still FEELS like others are watching and judging us. Our self-consciousness is a feeling and it is very real.

If your psychologist/mental health care worker does not understand this, you know more than they do about social anxiety. Under these circumstances, it is very doubtful they will be able to help you.

Also, remember that the professional should always welcome your questions. If someone seems unfriendly or too clinical, they should not be your choice of a therapist.

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Symptoms Of Social Phobia

When exposed to a feared social situation, a person with social phobia may experience symptoms of extreme anxiety, including:

• feeling as if you have nothing to say
• accelerated heart rate
• feelings of self-doubt and uncertainty
• negative thoughts such as Im making a fool of myself
• difficulty concentrating on anything other than physical sensations of anxiety, negative feedback from others and negative thoughts
• an overwhelming urge to flee the situation
• the realisation that these feelings are irrational and out of proportion.

Increase Social Situations Gradually

People with social anxiety disorder often avoid social situations where they may trigger their feelings of anxiety. Although this reduces anxiety in the short-term, avoidance can make anxiety much worse in the long-term.

If possible â and with the help of a therapist, if necessary â the person can gradually increase their exposure to the situations they fear. This creates space for them to have a positive experience with the situation.

Having positive social experiences can boost a personâs confidence and reduce their anxiety or reassure them that they can overcome it.

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Who Does Social Anxiety Affect

Social anxiety disorder is a common mental health condition that can affect anyone. Most people who have social anxiety disorder experience symptoms before theyre 20 years old. Women and people designated female at birth experience higher rates of social anxiety than men or people designated male at birth .

How Do You Explain Anxiety To A Loved One

Anxiety can be such a source of frustration in any relationship. As long as emotions are involved, anxiety will work its way in and complicate them. In romantic relationships, lacking a sense of freedom or safety makes it much more challenging to enjoy sex and intimacy. When loving someone with anxiety, its hard to be present and enjoy the moment when your worried about their, fears, and anxious thoughts pulling them away.

All of this might make sense to you, but when explaining anxiety to a loved one, try to keep the focus on sharing what helps. There will be times when your loved one believes that a particular emotional response is connected to them when its your anxiety. So help them to understand the difference by opening up about your triggers. Then talk to them about how they can help when you experience symptoms this includes informing them of what not to do.

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Social Phobia Can Extend Beyond The Social Event

A person with social phobia can feel anxious while simply anticipating an upcoming social event. After the event, the person may replay the conversations they had and rate their performance. Brooding on these feelings of social failure can make the person feel even worse, and reinforce the desire to avoid social situations in the future.

Cant Explain Compare The Past Experiences

Everyone who suffers from anxiety has had at least one disastrous conversation in past where the other person thinks they will be able to get out of it effortlessly. It is hard for someone who has never experienced anxiety to understand the problem.

An excellent approach to explain anxiety is to bring something to the scene that listener has experienced before. It can be similar to a big work presentation or asking someone out on a date. Try explaining with events or scenarios.

Explaining the Worst-Case Situations also can be effective. Even though your brain understands that it is not bad it is sounds, you might have to take something big to other person to convince about the situation that you are in. As said, it is not a cakewalk to explain and make someone understand about anxiety.

Summary: By asking them about their stressful occurrences, you can use their past experiences to describe your feelings.

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What Can I Do About Social Anxiety Disorder

If your social anxiety keeps you from doing things you want or need to do, or from making or keeping friends, you may need treatment.

Talk about your fears and worries with a doctor or therapist who has experience treating social anxiety disorder. They will be able to tell if you have normal social anxiety or if you need treatment.

What Are You Thinking About

When the river begins to narrow you feel like youre going to fall off so you start thinking something bad is going to happen.

You begin thinking of one negative outcome after another. Your thoughts will automatically spiral out of control and become the worst possible scenario.

These distorted thoughts are known as cognitive distortions. They are thoughts that give an irrational and negative perception of reality.

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What Is It Like To Live With Social Anxiety

By Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D.,

Psychologist/Director, Social Anxiety Institute

All day, every day, life is like this. Fear. Apprehension. Avoidance. Pain. Anxiety about what you said. Fear that you said something wrong. Worry about others’ disapproval. Afraid of rejection, of not fitting in. Anxious to enter a conversation, afraid you’ll have nothing to talk about. Hiding what’s wrong with you deep inside, putting up a defensive wall to protect your “secret”. You are undergoing the daily, chronic trouble of living with this mental disorder we call social anxiety disorder.

Very few people understand the agonizing and traumatic depth of social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety makes people go inside themselves and try to “protect” this secret. Most people with social anxiety disorder try to hide it from others, especially from family and loved ones. There is fear that family members may find out they suffer from social anxiety, and then view them differently or outright reject them. This is almost never true, but the fear of this happening makes many people with social anxiety stay in their dark closet.

*If you are seeking treatment for social anxiety, start here*

Tell Them What You Want From Them

The person you are telling is most likely going to want to help you, so tell them how they can.

Maybe its your parents and you want them to take you to the doctors, maybe you want a friend to be aware not to drop you in situations that will make you super anxious whatever it is they can do to help you, just tell them.

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How Do You Explain Anxiety To Someone Who Doesn’t Have It

Anxiety can contribute to a variety of symptoms, from mild to severe. And you might experience some, but not all.

We know that it can be difficult to put into words because it can feel like no day is the same as the one before when you have anxiety. How you feel on a given day can depend on the triggers present, not to mention your mood, physical health, and the state of your relationships.

You might not always be able to predict your anxiety or how to explain it to a tee, so stick with what you know. Talk about what anxiety feels like for you.

This Isnt Something To Be Ashamed About

Not everyone understands how much anxiety really affects people. However, treatment and support are increasingly available. The most effective treatment is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , which helps people change negative thought patterns and practice new behaviors in a safe environment. Working with a good therapist can help socially anxious people start to overcome their patterns.

If you think you may have an anxiety disorder, seek help from a doctor or mental health professional. Though social anxiety may never completely go away, you can significantly decrease your symptoms and stop it from holding you back.

Even if you havent experienced social anxiety yourself, learning more can always help you understand other people. So next time you invite out a socially anxious friend, remember how they might be feeling.

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Make It More Relatable

The thing is, everyone has a degree of anxiety. Everyone.

Its human instinct to feel anxious in certain situations but when it gets to the point that its affecting your life thats when it becomes a problem.

Try and find a situation that your friends & family have been through that made them anxious and compare that to your social anxiety.

Explain that often it can feel as if youre about to start a new job every time you go into a social situation or something to that effect.

Last year I did a 2 hour talk for a photographic society and it was an insanely daunting experience but hugely compared to how I felt pulling up to school every morning when I was a teenager. No wonder I was so exhausted and desperate in high school if I was feeling like that every single day.

You could also ask them what their worst fears are, maybe they have a phobia of some kind and that way you can relate how your anxiety affects you in your daily life. Explain how you play out your worst fears constantly and it stops you from doing basic things.

Get Help If You Need It

Although there is a lot you can do to support yourself, its also okay to ask for help. Talking therapy can help a lot, and if you need it you can also get medication that helps.

Find a counsellor or therapist or a psychologist or a clinical psychologist and talk to your doctor about whether medication would help you. It can be helpful to ask if the health professional is trained in cognitive behaviour therapy, as this is currently the treatment of choice for social anxiety.

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How Long Will I Have Social Anxiety Disorder

If left untreated, a person with social anxiety disorder could have it for the rest of their life. People who are on medication and/or participate in psychological therapy for their social anxiety are often able to drastically lessen or overcome their symptoms and anxiety. They learn how to live with the social anxiety but not let it overwhelm them.

What Is A Social Situation

A social situation includes any situation in which you and at least 1 other person are present. Social situations tend to fall into 2 main categories: performance situations and interpersonal interactions.

Performance Situations

These are situations where people feel they are being observed by others. Examples include:

• Public speaking (e.g. presenting at a meeting
• Participating in meetings or classes
• Eating in front of others
• Using public washrooms
• Writing in front of others
• Performing in public
• Entering a room where everyone is already seated

Interpersonal Interactions

These are situations where people are interacting with others and developing closer relationships. Examples include:

• Meeting new people
• Working in a group
• Ordering food at a restaurant
• Returning something at a store
• Having a job interview

Note: It is not uncommon for people to fear some social situations and feel quite comfortable in others. For example, some people are comfortable spending time with friends and family, and interacting socially with co-workers but are very fearful of performance situations, such as participating in business meetings or giving formal speeches. Also, some people fear only a single situation , while others fear and avoid a wide range of social situations.

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Read The Blog On How To Explain Anxiety To Someone Here:

I want to first talk about how common it is to feel unsure how to approach having this conversation with someone. I often hear concern from my clients that others might not truly understand or instances in the past when a similar discussion didnt go as planned. I also hear the other end of the spectrum when Im working with a client whose partner struggles with anxiety, not feeling sure what to do or whats going on. But theres usually a genuine desire to understand and learn how to be supportive.

How To Explain Anxiety To Someone: What It Is And What Causes It

Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life, but anxiety symptoms can differ from person to person and we can often wonder how to explain anxiety to those around us.

When anxiety lingers, it can cause more than just a feeling of nervousness. It can be overwhelming and persistent, a nagging feeling that can affect many facets of everyday life.

It may seem like overreacting to others or that the person experiencing it is exaggerating a temporary feeling that will go away once they are calm.

Many struggle to understand what it feels like to have anxiety and have an anxiety disorder that makes them feel trapped, scared, exhausted, and even depressed.

So, how do we explain anxiety to others who might not completely understand what we are going through?

First, lets define what anxiety is.

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How Can It Affect Your Life

Social anxiety disorder prevents you from living your life. Youâll avoid situations that most people consider ânormal.â You might even have a hard time understanding how others can handle them so easily.

When you avoid all or most social situations, it affects your personal relationships. It can also lead to:

• Low self-esteem
• Poor social skills that donât improve

Social Anxiety Disorder In Children

Theres nothing abnormal about a child being shy, but children with social anxiety disorder experience extreme distress over everyday situations such as playing with other kids, reading in class, speaking to adults, or taking tests. Often, children with social phobia dont even want to go to school.

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What Other People Think Anxiety Is Like

Anxiety can be difficult to understand which gives others a negative misconception of the illness. Here are some of the most common myths about anxiety:

What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a form of psychological treatment. Your psychologist or therapist works with you to change your thinking and behavioral patterns that are harmful or unhelpful.

CBT usually takes place over multiple sessions. Through talking and asking questions, your therapist or psychologist helps you gain a different perspective. As a result, you learn to respond better to and cope with stress, anxiety and difficult situations.

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