How have you improved your social anxiety?

[C1239]

Since covid if I’m honest with myself I don’t like the thought of going to events , meeting up with friends anymore! Sometimes I make myself do it and when I’m there I normally have a good time but the thought of it beforehand makes me feel anxious, never had this before covid! Anyone else the same? Any tips of how to improve it?

I think to some extent I have always had social anxiety but used to be quite good at masking and managing it. Since covid I am out of that habit. Part of me feels less like I have to force myself now though. I realise now I would much rather be with with fewer than 6 people than more than 10, I do more small dinners and have a few people round but I don’t go out of my way to go to parties. It sounds like you have a good time when you’re there so it’s probably worth persevering with!

Are there any particular triggers - e.g. being with people you don’t regularly see, or public locations versus home? I think the more you do it the easier it gets. For me it always used to help to plan in advance things like how to get there and what to wear, have a few anecdotes ready to talk about and try to recall things the other people had talked about last time I saw them to bring up and ask about!

I think I do feel much more comfortable having people over than going to places I’m not in regularly and I think the fear is more when it’s people I don’t see regularly and that I ll be there and suddenly feel really uncomfortable and not be able to leave , it’s silly isn’t it!

I don’t think it’s silly at all! I wonder whether if you planned for having to leave early, e.g. factor in cost for an Uber and have a story ready about an early start, it might ease the anxiety in the run up and you’d actually be less likely to have to “use” it?

In all honesty medication. Last year I barely left the house was about to start graded exposure therapy, changed my meds and suddenly it was so much easier. Do still have a bit of anxiety about it but it's manageable and I'm more able to push myself with it a bit now whereas before it was simply not possible to even try.

It’s strange, if I’m going somewhere by myself I don’t really mind, I’m quite a shy person really, so often I don’t feel nervous about going out and about , it’s when I’m going with other people!