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We live in a demanding world where it seems impossible to please just about everyone. With so much negative emotion and judgment in the world, why would anyone want to speak and interact with each other? As in introvert with social anxiety, that is a common question we ask ourselves. At times, you may feel that the more effort you put your interactions, the less success you feel from them. Many introverts that feel that they have successfully integrated into society, but still feel a shadow of stress surrounds us in many common social situations. After all, we are living in the most complex time in history.
To be harassed with the stress caused by a fear of being judged or evaluated by others, even if no such threat is actually present, is a relevant trouble many introverts experience. Such stresses can manifest itself into having low self-esteem, constant distress, and difficulties when deciding and concentrating on tasks. This problem is called “social anxiety,” and it may cause one to distance themselves away from others in isolation. Since social humiliation is obviously right around the corner, why go there?
As someone who turns inward for guidance, you may be inhibited by anticipated stress caused by common social situations. It may have arisen when you had a new crush, when you wanted to impress an important person, or that time you wanted your friends to like you. More often than not, we feel a sense of rejection when we put too much attention on how our social endeavors “should” unravel.
To help relieve you of this anxiety, it is best to understand the cognitive functions of an introvert with social anxiety. Knowing these functions may help you to navigate new environments with ease, to interact with people you’ve just met, and give you a general sense of relief.
Now imagine that you are a person who is always thinking about yourself, a person who does not let the others know about you and your feelings , a person who is always blaming yourself for everything that happens around you and also you are stressed with the Social anxiety…is not it a whole mess? . This kind of person are called introverts-in reality that example is the very downside but we will see that being introverted in fact is not bad, it may be used as the way for overcoming the social anxiety- they really do like to think , tweak too much and spend some time alone.
Are introversion and social anxiety the same?
Introversion and social anxiety often get scrambled together, but for therapists, they generally describe two different parts of a person’s being or functioning. The way we face the social situations denotes the difference between a personality trait (introversion) and a mental health issue (social anxiety).
So, is it bad to be an introvert?
Not at all! The only bad thing in here is to be stressed, feeling less able; to shut yourself into your own world and to fear other’s opinion. To be an introvert only means that you are a person who likes to spend time with yourself, that you like to think and that you are more reserved or reflective but depending on various factors this condition may destroy you or turn you into a valuable, capable and productive being.
As the previous example shows, to be an introvert may be so detrimental in the worst case introverts can be socially anxious which means they will suffer in silence , think twice, or three times before doing any activity , take everything personally and definitely no one is going to notice what’s going on with the poor introverted . An introvert likely won’t notice what is going on with his / her mind , for him / her it is normal to criticize herself / himself so unless you can read his / her mind you cannot figure out that there is something haunting that poor being-there are many surveys that may help people to discover whether is suffering the social stress or not.
imagine now that you are a dancer and you are a part of a dancing group (eg you dance salsa casino or ballet) now imagine that you are an introvert and that you are afraid of making mistakes when dancing because everyone is watching you, one day while dancing you make a mistake and a friend laughs unintentionally about you. At any time, you may start thinking that your steps are just wrong and with every single step you will keep thinking of failing(you will not tell anyone about your fear to fail but at the same time you are hesitating yourself). Now dancing which was your favorite activity became into your personal hell.
On the contrary being an introvert may help you with the SA (social anxiety), it’s known that SA turns you into a shy person and may lead you to failure However if you are an introvert it is just about time, you are a person who loves to think and being alone, likely you are smart and have great communication skills, use the abilities that you got from the introversion get rid of the social anxiety.
How do I Overcome Social Anxiety as an Introvert (using my introvert’s abilities)
Face your wrong thoughts: this disorder may lead you to have wrong thoughts about yourself whenever you are involved into a social situation you may get to think: “I look like a fool” “I am going to humiliate myself” as you are a great thinker, use your powers to identify those thoughts and replace them with good ones, convince yourself about the opposite.
Evaluate the reality of you fears: most likely you are thinking too much and placing ideas into your head , try to see the origin of these ideas and you wiles that they won’t make sense … ask to yourself : why do I feel like I am going to look like a fool? , Why do I feel like I’ m going to make a mistake? Answer those questions and you will see that there is nothing to fear.
Stop creating false predictions: you are not a fortune teller, it is inutile to start thinking that something is going to fail, you are making a mistake, or that you will be embarrassed, just face those thoughts too and that’s it!
Realize that not everybody judges you: Meanwhile you are feeling down because you think that the people is talking about you or watching you , probably they won’t even notice that you are there and if they do , you can bet the will not think the horrible things that you are thinking about yourself… you like to talk to you inner being , convince him to stop yanking your chain and to start placing nice thoughts into your mind , remember if you get to believe in something .. it will come true.
In fact you can help yourself in a bunch of manners just remember that you are not the only one, almost everyone sis being haunted by the Social Anxiety so meanwhile you think a person is watching and criticizing you , that person may be looking at you because thinks that you are criticizing him / her so now it is all up to you meditate and try to discover new ways to help you to improve you social skills and STOP destroying yourself, be happy and remember this: there is no a way in which the whole world will be looking at you and being aware of all of the steps you take , even if you were that important people is not going to think the same things than you so calm down change your focus and forget about the others , no matter what they think about you, it won’t change anything, just do your best and consider your situation in order to stop being your own enemy.