Relationships & Social Anxiety Disorder [May Events]
Good Morning To Our Anxiety Community!
Hello everyone! I hope you are having a lovely day today. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and as part of the May Events today, we will be discussing Relationships and Social Anxiety. Lets start by defining todays topic:
A relationship is the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected. An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Although an intimate relationship is commonly a sexual relationship, it may also be a non-sexual relationship involving family, friends, or acquaintances.
Social anxiety is intense anxiety or fear of being judged, negatively evaluated, or rejected in a social or performance situation. Social anxiety disorder prevents you from living your life- Youll avoid situations that most people would consider normal. You might even have a hard time understanding how others can handle them so easily.
✦ Impact of social anxiety on relationships and ways to cope:
Avoiding most or all social situations, can undeniably affect our personal relationships in a negative way. High levels of social anxiety are linked with low levels of trust and perceived support in romantic, social, and personal relationships. If we live with social anxiety, we may be constantly overthinking, overdoing, and over preparing. Social anxiety can creep up on us at work, on dates, at parties, and much more which can make building and maintaining relationships very difficult and overwhelming for all parties involved. Social anxiety makes us feel either fearful or limited which can make it hard to want to be intimate. Negative thoughts and fears impact a persons ability to be present within a relationship, potentially sucking the joy out of the moment.
Living with social anxiety feels like never being free of fear. It feels like you are on display and doomed to disappoint those around you. For people who do experience social anxiety, no social interaction goes smoothly enough to provide a break from ongoing self-criticism and worry. Luckily, there are different practices we can adopt to help ease our social anxiety and make more meaningful connections in our relationships in the process:
*Tray a self-help manual
*Work with a therapist
*Practice deep breathing exercises or try meditation
*Try Cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT)
*Keep a rational, or logical, outlook on life
*Try Journaling
*Be physically active on a regular basis
*Participate in social situations by reaching out to people with whom you feel comfortable
Discussion time! Please feel free to answer the following:
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel?
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way?
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?
Stay Beautiful My Friends!
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*Coping Resources: The Andrew Kukes Foundation For Social Anxiety, International Paruresis Association, National Institute Of Mental Health, Social Anxiety Support, Selective Mutism Group
@PeppermintStar0912
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel?: I don't really have social anxiety to be honest, but I do get it when I'm in front of people and I have to talk. Therefore, social anxiety makes me feel inadequate, not confident and stupid and also makes me want to shy away from talking in front of crowds.
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way?: I'm currently not in a relationship, but when I was in one, it didn't affect me at all.
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?: Deep breathing and taking it easy, relaxing, blast some music, think of a happy place.
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel? - I don't much anymore, Only when a store has too many humans in it.
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way? - It has, It makes me think the worst and makes me trust less.
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?- It sounds sad but putting myself out there made it better. I work in people everyday so you somewhat have to 'get over it'
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel?
I was diagnosed with social anxiety two years ago-so the being scared about what others thought or not entering social situations if I didn't know at least one person there, fearing I'd embarass myself or just being overwhelmed by people in general. My social anxiety has made me feel powerless and like I am disconnected from everyone else (so not great feelings).
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way?
My social anxiety has affected my relationships negatively because for a while I would keep to myself and keep quiet because I was listening to the fear and allowing it to control my life. It meant that I would second guess everything I did and became scared to take risks or put myself out there and I didn't necessarily know where I fit into conversations and didn't want to interrupt (this also meant a lot of apologizing and reassurance on my part).
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?
To get a better handle on my social anxiety I've tried putting myself in situations that encouraged me to interact with others and be surrounded by people, so that eventually the discomfort and fear wasn't as strong. And the more I exposed myself to those situations, the easier I found it to simply go with the flow but certainly start with small situations so as not to get discouraged.
@PeppermintStar0912
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel?
Almost always... I expereince social anxiety and imposter syndrome which has made this year fairly difficult to navigate when it came to academics. I returned to school after taking a year off and between my lack of expereince, my unfamiliarity with the whole process and overall shyness, it has been difficult to show my worth in the program or to even make real connections with the people I'm going to school with. It makes me feel like I'm displaced. I feel like a mistake has been made and people are starting to realize it but they are afraid to tell me I need to leave. I feel like people tolerate me rather like me.
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way?
Social anxiety has gotten in the way of creating new relationships. I'm so afraid of people not liking the real me that I don't allow people to get close. But that also means that I often feel alone when I am going through a hard time and I don't have someone to talk to. Don't get me wrong, 7 cups is filled with great members and listeners who have done a lot for me but I still miss having that type of relationship with someone where I can just be open and they won't judge. The relationship where I can come to them at any time or any day and they'll be there.
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?
I've been meeting with a counselor since January. We didn't start with the social anxiety (there were bigger problems that needed to be addressed first) but we're talking about it now. I've also been trying to take further steps out of my comfort zone to prove to myself that I belong to be where I am and I am meant to be included in this group of people just starting out graduate school.
@PeppermintStar0912
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel?
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way?
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?
It makes me feel nervous like having intense butterflies in my stomach. My first inclination is avoidance but I ram through and force myself to do the thing (picture a ram pushing through the curtain). It ends up not being as bad as my brain thought, so that's the motivation to push forward (even if my brain doesn't want it).
Not really. People don't think I have social anxiety because I apparently seem very calm and collected, whereas I have friends who might look visibly scared.
Just writing a journal, listening to calming music like the sounds of the ocean, chewing gum, etc.
@PeppermintStar0912 Thank you for this amazing post 
!
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel?
I used to experience social anxiety in the past and I have to say it was extremely challenging. It made me feel very frustrated, nervous and disoriented at times.
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way?
There is a chance that happened. Bonding with other people and opening up can be so difficult when you experience social anxiety, after all.
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?
I think that what helped me the most was slow exposure to the stimuli that made (or still make at times) the anxiety intensify and journaling!
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel? Yes sometimes. But the older I get it's bothering me less often. When I do have it, if it gets bad enough I panic and completely flip out. My mind goes blank and I don't know what to say or do. I am stuck in fight or flight mode and it's horrible. Then I know the person or persons I am talking about can see that I am melting down and it makes me freak out even worse.
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way? It's affected it in a negative way because I am painfully shy and girls think I am weird because of it. So I haven't had very many girlfriends. It's very hard to initiate a conversation with someone I am interested in. So almost 100% of the one's I have been interested in have gotten away.
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety? I need to practice social interaction more. I'll never get any better unless I get used to facing my fear. With this social isolation from this pandemic I am getting very little interaction though.
@PeppermintStar0912
1. Do you experience social anxiety? How does it make you feel?
It makes me overanalyze every interaction for every possible hidden meaning that I can think of until I am in the worst possible light. It makes my self-esteem worse and makes me more awkward and fearful around others, which makes me more fearful of the next time because of how the fear makes me clumsy.
2. Has your social anxiety affected your relationships in a negative way?
My partner can get frustrated with my obsessive spirals or not wanting to do a certain social thing.
3. What steps could you take to get a better handle on social anxiety?
I need to expose myself a lot.
