One unhelpful way of thinking in social anxiety is that there is a specific, narrow acceptable way to be. Believing this increases anxiety dramatically if you feel like you can’t act that way, or it’s inauthentic to you. We often deal with this by hiding parts of ourselves, pretending to be different than we really are, or avoiding interactions. Exposure therapy for social anxiety works in part by allowing us to test out this belief, and find out whether people are more accepting than we anticipate. Any move towards being more authentic (and especially being accepted for/despite it) is immensely healing. Lowering demands is helpful in the process - it doesn’t have to go GREAT, we just want to learn it doesn’t go TERRIBLE.
We'll talk about:
0:00 - Intro
0:35 - What overcoming social anxiety looks like
1:06 - One off the biggest insights: it goes fine, not terrible
1:45 - There isn’t one RIGHT way to be
2:40 - Graduated exposure for showing more of yourself
3:54 - The first steps for doing graduated exposure
I'm Dr. Thomas Smithyman, a clinical psychologist making videos to help people overcome social anxiety.
My mission here is to use video to help people overcome social anxiety. Most people with social anxiety never seek help, and those who do usually wait 16 years! Treatment is effective but people don't know about it. I'd like that to change, and I'd really appreciate any help.
QUESTION — Have a question about anything related to social anxiety? Post in the comments section of this video.
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