Other Social Anxiety Blogs

Social anxiety warps our brains over the years so that we misperceive and misinterpret social situations, other people, and how we are coming across to others. We have been thinking irrationally for many years, and so changing our thinking to a more positive and rational direction can take some time and effort. Getting a handle on how to make our thinking more rational, helps us see the world (and ourselves) more accurately. Most people with social anxiety are surprised when we "prove" out the truth to them. Testing things out or "proving" the truth out to yourself is the only way to switch from an irrational to a rational and accurate viewpoint of social situations that your brain will accept.

Using behavioral therapy, and taking one step at a time, we can do small experiments to prove to ourselves what is actually happening in social situations. Some examples of small experiments include:

Doing something purposely foolish in a public place, like dropping a tray at the food court, and seeing if others react with anger or negatively, or if they generally just ignore or don't notice you at all.