Overcome social anxiety

My stomach was flipping as I was driving to school, just like the first day, and it makes food sound repulsive, but that went away after I got into my first class.

I was even pretty content going to Human Relations class. When it came to my turn to speak in the class, my heart definitely boom-boom-boomed. Once it was the next person’s turn to talk, I felt my lip quivering from realizing that I’d just paid attention to what I’d listened to and spoke at the same time (with all eyes on me), so I had to bite my lip a little to keep it still, lol. No one was looking at that point though.

I am seeing less and less people who are intimidating to me, because I am accepting myself. The people haven’t changed; I am changing! :)

This anxiety thing would be the only barrier for getting the degree and job I want, and I cannot allow it to be a barrier. If this barrier isn’t there, there are no limits.

When I was heading out the door to go to school, I thought to myself, “It’s just life.” It’s a short, sweet quote, that isn’t deep and doesn’t really mean anything. It sums up one of my strategies for overcoming social anxiety: not looking for deep meaning in everything.

I’m in a Human Relations class now.

Guess who is going to force herself to stay in it?
That’s right. Me!

I’ll have to participate in discussion and show myself. Ooooo. The teacher said, to the class, “If you feel like you can’t handle talking to people, this is not the class for you.”

My heart is going to beat hard sometimes and I’m sure something I say will feel too revealing at some point, but if I don’t do this now, when will I? I have to take this class. It’s for my “own good”. And let’s face it; I’m truly interested in learning more about how to talk effectively with people anyway, and it’ll teach me some things.

Recently I’ve been reading Erika Hilliard’s book “Living Fully with Shyness and Social Anxiety” and it is really great. It really gets into detail about understanding your own social anxiety and what you can do about it. A year ago I probably wouldn’t have been able to make this book useful for myself, at least not in the whole “taking action” part of it. But now I feel like I have enough confidence and understanding to actually apply some of the things discussed in the book.

The book has a really great section about goal-setting, which can be applied to anything, not just social anxiety. I really like the book, so I might buy it to have for reference since I got it at the library. I definitely reccommend it. Everything I’ve read so far is great and helpful.

I’ve been on medication for around 2 weeks now and I think it is starting to make a positive difference, even though its not without side effects mainly loss of appetite and increased trouble sleeping.

so many people i know who suffer with SA are so creative, is it that we creative people tend to think about stuff too much?

The more accepting of myself I am, the less I’m focusing on myself when talking to other people and the more I’m thinking of the point I’m trying to get across. cool! an improvement I hope to keep nurturing with the cbt stuff.

Got to do some more cbt exercise tonight.

This completely rules my life. ]:

Been practicing a few things lately, to aid in accepting myself (not accepting anxiety—accepting that making mistakes is part of life, and that I am capable of… anything… just like anyone else, if I try my very best!)

cbt – cognitive behavioral therapy

I’m really happy and I’ve been doing really great with this goal!! I did have some side effects that we think were from the medicine, so now I’m taking a lower dose, but I still feel fine. The only time I’ve really noticed my anxiety lately was Tuesday during my driving lesson. But now that is over and these past two days of driving have been fine.

Track is fantastic! Outdoor track is sooooo much better than indoor. I love the people and I’m being a lot more social. I had a rough March, but this year as a whole has been great. I can’t wait for college!!

How to get into a social mood

How to keep conversation going

good reads. Keep in mind that the second one talks about talking to the opposite sex, but it goes for talking with anyone. The branches thing really sticks in my mind and that’s going to help me a lot.