Ways to Deal With Social Anxiety Report Topics

Social anxiety is a type of anxiety where you have a sever social phobia. This often 
causes fear, worry, and panic when you know you will be in a social situation, from 
going to a party to working in a crowded office. It can happen anywhere there are other 
people around. Here are some things to know about dealing with your social anxiety.

1. Find Out What Your Feared Situations Are

For the first part of this report, we want you to learn all about your feared situations. This 
is the starting point of figuring out your social anxiety triggers, which we will talk about 
more in-depth in the next section. For now, let’s talk about your feared situations and 
how to figure out what they are.

What Social Situations Give You the Most Fear?

We will go more into finding your anxiety triggers in the next section, but for now, let’s 
just talk about the social situations you might find yourself in. By now, you probably 
know you have social anxiety, and know what you experience when you have anxiety. 
This may be that you have physical signs of panic like a rapid heart rate or tunnel vision, 
or you may get weird pains and sensations.

Other people will experience more mental or emotional signs, like suddenly being 
extremely fearful of others, that they will talk to you, or worried about people judging 
you. When you notice these things happening, consider what situation you were in. 
There are many types of situations that can cause fear when you have social anxiety. 
Here are just a few that might come up:

Walking down the street or taking public transportation
Speaking at conferences or events
Being in large crowds at concerts or other special events
Standing in a line at the coffee shop or retail store
Waiting on the side of the road while cars drive by you
Going to a job interview or attending your first day at work

As you can see, the situations vary quite a bit. All of them are related to other people 
being near you, whether you are forced to talk to them or they can simply see you and 
what you are doing.

Why Keeping a Journal is Essential With This Type of Anxiety

As you might have guesses, you need a way to determine what the situations are that 
give you the most fear, which includes recording them. You can find this out by keeping 
a journal. You should have a journal either for just anxiety or a regular daily journal, 
where you can write down when you experienced fear and anxiety, and where you were 
at the time. This is a wonderful way to figure out what your most feared situations are.

How to Handle These Situations

Once you know what your most feared situations are, you can then decide what to do 
about it. In this report, we are going to give you a lot of tools for handling your anxiety, 
but the first question you need to ask yourself is whether it is worth the anxiety or not.

There will be some instances when it is more than worth it, like interviewing for your 
dream job or attending your sister’s wedding. Other social occasions, like parties with 
people you don’t know that well, are probably not that important. It is up to you to decide 
when you will get help for your anxiety, and when you will practice avoidance for your 
own mental health.

2. Determine if You Have Anxiety Triggers

One you know more about the situations that are causing you the most fear, you can 
then work on identifying your anxiety triggers. For most people, the triggers are going to 
be any social situation, though some people with social anxiety have triggers to specific 
types of situations or people. Knowing this can help you learn to live with your social 
anxiety, instead of letting it cripple you from ever participating in events and activities.

Here are some tips for figuring out what your specific anxiety triggers are. 

Focus on Specific Situations Giving You Panic

To find your anxiety triggers, you can first look at the specific situations that are giving 
you the worst emotions. With social anxiety, it is likely that you always have some worry 
or fear when you will be around others, but some situations can jump out at you as 
much more severe. Maybe there are people or situations that give you full-blown panic 
attacks. That is a good indication that you have found one of your biggest triggers.

A good way to keep track is to have an anxiety journal. You can write in it every day or 
as often as possible, noting when you feel anxious, worry, or nervous, and what was 
happening at the time. Perhaps you figure out that being around certain types of people 
causes the worst panic, or when you are at a party with a lot of people you don’t know, 
that is when you get a panic attack.

Are You Getting Enough Sleep?

Now let’s look at some of the more common triggers for social anxiety and the related 
panic attacks often accompanying it. The first is not getting enough sleep, which can 
make the anxiety much worse. Without proper sleep, your body and mind both get 
fatigued. This can heighten senses of worry or fear, because you aren’t as alert and 
focused, can’t concentrate on relaxation techniques you typically turn to, and you fear 
others will notice how off you are from being so tired.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep each night. If you are having trouble falling or 
staying asleep, it might be time to look for some remedies to help you get better sleep.

Track Your Eating and Drinking Habits

Another lifestyle habit that can make or break your social anxiety has to do with what 
you put in your body. A natural remedy for all forms of anxiety is to eat right. You want 
to eat nutritious foods with lots f vitamins and minerals, like whole grains, fruits, veggies, 
lean protein and lean dairy. 

Next, you want to avoid the bad foods, the ones that can trigger anxiety symptoms. This 
includes sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and other stimulants.

3. Practice Deep Breathing Exercises

Now that you have a better handle on figuring out what is causing you the most anxiety, 
you can start learning about different ways to relieve those feelings. Keep in mind that 
there isn’t a cure for anxiety, but ways to deal with it, reduce it, and handle even the 
worst situations.

The first remedy for social anxiety is with breathing exercises. This helps you to focus 
on deep breathing, which relaxes you and reduces stress. It helps whether you have an 
outing that you know is going to cause anxiety, or you are in the middle of a bad panic 
attack. Here is more information on practicing deep breathing exercises.

Focus on Every Movement

Deep breathing is simply a matter of breathing in and out deeply where you are more 
focused on the breaths than the worries in your mind. It can relax your mind and help 
with a panic attack, but doing it regularly also provides some long-term benefits when 
you have social anxiety.

To start with deep breathing, you should first simply breathe in and out, focusing on 
deep breaths that you can see and hear. Exaggerate the breaths so that you focus less 
on the fears in your mind, and more just on the breathing. 

A good way to do this is by focusing on the movements and sensations that happen 
when you breathe in and out so deeply. This might include seeing your chest rise and 
full, or hearing the air as you exhale and the air leaves your lungs. Experience the 
sensations in your chest and lungs as you inhale and exhale. This is what deep 
breathing is.

Try Meditating While Breathing

Next you can use deep breathing with a meditation practice, further helping you to deal 
with your anxiety and the negative emotions that might be coming up. Meditation is 
simply when you are able to clear your mind of all thoughts, worries, and fears, and just 
live in the moment. It is often done when people are learning to be more mindful.

When you are learning deep breathing, you don’t want to cause too much pressure or 
stress, so leave meditation for when you have a handle on the breathing exercises. 
Once you are ready, find a quiet place where you can be alone, and make sure there 
are no distractions. Take this time to clear your headspace as you breathe in and out, 
allowing your mind to be completely clear and worry-free during the deep breathing 
meditation session.

Practice Deep Breathing Routinely

Remember to keep practice deep breathing, even during moments when you are 
already relaxed. The more often you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more effective 
it will be. Soon, it will be automatic where when you feel anxious or worried about 
something, you automatically go to deep breathing in order to calm yourself down.

4. Improve Your Negative Thoughts

Social anxiety is often powered by the thoughts you have in your mind, just like other 
forms of anxiety. You get fears, worries, and negative feelings that will make it harder to 
deal with social situations. Sometimes, there is a reason to think these things, but the 
feelings are often highly exaggerated. It is time to get rid of those negative thoughts and 
turn them into positive ones.

Start Using Affirmations

An excellent way to start taking your negative thoughts and turning them into positive 
ones is with affirmations. Affirmations are words or sayings you tell yourself that 
promote positivity and gratitude. They are meant to motivate and inspire you, and can 
be used for all sorts of different things.

The affirmations can be anything and everything, as long as it helps you to get rid of 
those negative thoughts that are causing you to have bad social anxiety. Here is just an 
example of some affirmations you might use:

I do not need to live in fear.
Nothing bad is going to happen to me.
This (presentation, event, meeting) will go great.
I do not need to be worried. 
I can take control over my anxiety.

Just be creative and find sayings that make you feel better and like your social anxiety 
is not controlling you. 

Try Meditation

The next thing that can be really good for getting rid of the negative thoughts is by 
meditating. This was discussed in the previous section about deep breathing, but it 
bears repeating. Meditation can be so wonderful for you, both for helping the anxiety, to 
removing negative thoughts from your life.

When you start deep breathing and practicing meditation, you will notice that it is easier 
to hold onto your positive thoughts and feelings, and simply let go of the negative ones. 
You are not pretending they are there, but are more accepting them, then moving on. 
You are not letting them control you, in turn helping to reduce your anxiousness and 
fear in social situations.

Keep a Gratitude Journal

Being thankful for the good in your life is one of the best ways to be more positive and 
less negative. Many people dwell on what they don’t have or can’t do, but what about 
what you CAN do? A great use of your journal is to start talking about gratitude.

Every day, write at least one thing you were thankful for on that day. It can be as simple 
as waking up and being given another day at life, to complex and specific things like 
making a new friend or being able to get through a social situation you were scared of. 
The more you write about how grateful you are, the more of a positive impact it will have 
on your life.

Switch Around the Thoughts
The last thing you can do is let those negative thoughts enter your mind, then turn them 
around. This is when you go from life being half-empty to half-full. No matter what the 
thought or fear is, there should be a positive alternative to it. Look for that alternative 
and make the switch mentally.

5. Find Something Else to Focus On

Dealing with social anxiety is just like any other type of anxiety; you find little things that 
help you live with it. There isn’t going to be some magical cure, and the treatment 
options certainly aren’t the same for everyone. What you can do is start gathering 
different ways to handle your anxiety, and then find something else to focus on during 
moments when avoidance isn’t something you want to do.

This section is going to go over why you should focus on something else, how to do it, 
and when this is an appropriate decision for you to make.

Benefits of Shifting Your Focus

First of all, let’s go over the benefits of finding something else to focus on. This is going 
to vary based on the type of situation you find yourself in. However, a big problem with 
social anxiety is that it can often take you by surprise, then leaving you feeling 
debilitated by the emotions you are experiencing.

When this happens, you can try to find another person or thing to focus on instead. It 
helps get you through the social outing or situation and also improves your side effects, 
like panic attacks, that often accompany this form of anxiety.

Here are some ways shifting your focus can help you:

While at a party or event, you can focus on just one person who you know and feel 
comfortable with. This allows you to be at the party and celebrate the occasion, without 
having to feel vulnerable and like you need to talk to everyone.

If you are headed to a job interview, focus on the questions and answers, ignoring the 
people interviewing you. You are just focusing on what your answer will be. If it helps, 
find one thing on the person’s desk to look at, or focus on the colors of their attire. 

As you can see, the situation will change, but whether you need to look down at your 
phone or find a focal point to relax, it can help worry less about the people around you.

How to Find Something Else to Focus on

You may be somewhere and you have no idea what or who to focus on in order to relax. 
In these times, just look down or ahead of you and find one spot that will steal your 
focus. This is when you don’t have your phone or a book to help keep you away from 
the fears and worries about people being around you. There might be a broken tile on 
the floor, an interesting painting on the wall, or some random object that peaks your 
interest. Just look at it and try to think about something else.

There are many ways to interpret this, but the main point is that you are distracting your 
mind by doing or looking at something else. 

6. Accept Your Anxiety

There will come a point toward your journey of dealing with social anxiety when you just 
have to accept your social anxiety. This doesn’t mean you will simply let the feelings 
take over and keep you from ever doing anything or spending time with others, but is a 
way to let go of the feelings after accepting them, then move on from them. Here is how 
you can learn and benefit from accepting that you have social anxiety.

Why Accepting is Important

Let’s start this section off by talking about why you need to accept your anxiety. With 
social anxiety, it can often take over your life. It doesn’t just stop with the fear or the 
worry, but that can lead to a host of other emotions and thoughts. When you find that 
you are panicked about an upcoming event or social outing, you then feel guilty about 
wanting to cancel, or you know you can’t cancel and the worry just builds and builds 
until you can barely handle it.

This is the reason why you need to learn to accept the anxiety and move on from it. 
Understand that this is just a part of who you are. It is guiding you through life, but it is 
also giving you a reason to be stronger and to improve yourself. Don’t hide from the 
anxiety or resent it; just let it lead you to the next phase in your life. Understand you will 
be anxious in social situations, then push past it.

How it Helps You to Deal

The reason this can help you deal with your social anxiety is because it prevents the 
overthinking from getting out of hand. You are not pretending it doesn’t exist and you 
aren’t punishing yourself for your mental illness. Instead, you are choosing to embrace 
it, but then let it go and move on, looking for other ways to handle your anxiety. 

7. Get Professional Help

Nobody is beyond reaching out to others and asking for help, but we’re not talking about 
your support system just yet. First, let’s talk about professional help for your social 
anxiety. This might include talking to a counselor, therapist, family doctor, or 
psychologist. Take a look at how to get professional help and why you should consider 
it for your form of anxiety.

Talk to Your Primary Doctor First

While there are many natural remedies for social anxiety, there are also some medical 
ones. Before you find a therapist, it is a good idea to let your primary doctor know what 
is going on. They don’t just want to know how you’re doing physically, but emotionally 
and mentally as well. Plus, your doctor probably knows of some highly reputable 
therapists and counselors that you can consider going to.

See a Therapist Regularly

When you find a good therapist that you like, don’t just go once or twice and think you 
are cured. For mental illnesses like anxiety, you need to make this a regular thing. Even 
if you never take medications, the therapist will be someone you can always turn to. 
They can also help you in other areas of your life, helping you to be the healthiest, most 
rounded person possible.

Consider Medications

If your therapist believes you are in need of medication, consider whether it is a good 
option for you. You don’t have to take them, but it is worth considering if you and your 
therapist both agree it is in your best interest. You can still work on other methods of 
dealing with your anxiety, but in the meantime it is good to have a backup plan. If you 
decide to go with medication, you will most likely be referred to a psychiatrist, who can 
further help you with your anxiety.

8. Find the Right Support System

A big part of dealing with anxiety, whether it is social anxiety or other types of anxiety, is 
having the right emotional support. This is not something you should have to deal with 
all alone. It can be a lot harder getting through life and all its trials and tribulations when 
you have a secret mental illness and never bother to get help.

A good support system involves someone who is there for you, can guide you through 
the hardest moments, and can show up to functions you aren’t able to navigate on your 
own. Here are some things to know about finding a good support system for your social 
anxiety.

Where to Find a Support System

Who should be your support system? There is no hard and fast rule here. It can be a 
single individual or a group of people. You want to look for someone you know and 
trust, and who not only knows you, but knows about your social anxiety. You don’t want 
this to be someone you can’t tell everything to.

Some good places to look include your friends, people in your family, even co-workers. 
It is good to have a solid support system in place for those times when you need help 
navigating new things and getting help on your worst and darkest days.

Use these tips to help deal with your social anxiety.

