Three Ways To Overcome Your Social Anxiety And Be More Outgoing
Posted on: 3 June 2018
Social anxiety can be a crippling thing to live with. It can prevent you from establishing meaningful relationships both in your personal and professional life. If you're tired of being anxious and want to be more outgoing, here are three steps you can take to turn your life around.
Rule out Serious Medical Issues First
Some forms of social anxiety can arise from serious underlying mental or neurological health issues. Before you try to tackle anxiety on your own, visit your doctor and describe your symptoms. They'll be able to perform tests to rule out any physical ailments in your brain. If your anxiety is purely psychological, they can also prescribe proper medication that will help you cope with your symptoms.
See an Adult Counselor
Counseling is immensely helpful when it comes to overcoming social anxiety. Adult counselors are professionally trained to talk you through your issues and help you psychologically confront the underlying causes. They will also help you build behavioral coping mechanisms that you can apply in social situations to alleviate your anxiety and be more outgoing.
Keep in mind that counseling won't totally rid you of anxiety after one session. You have to establish an ongoing relationship with your counselor with regular sessions to truly work down to the root of your anxiety. Over time though, you'll find that talking through your problems and strengthening your coping mechanisms does wonders for your social anxiety.
Use Your Hobbies as a Gateway to Socializing
It's much easier and less stressful to be social with like minded people. When you meet people who are passionate about the same hobbies as you are, you automatically have something to talk about and connect over.
The Internet offers some great tools for connecting with like minded hobbyists. The website Meetup has pages dedicated to most cities where local users create groups centered around their hobbies and interests. Simply join the site, look up your city and hobby, and start chatting with like minded people. Most groups on the site periodically meet in person, so you'll be able to get out of the house and socialize with a group of people whom you know share the same passions as you.
Facebook also has tons of local Group pages centered around specific hobbies and interests. Both are great tools for making new friends without the pressure of building a connection from scratch.
Living with social anxiety is an ongoing battle. However, actively tackling your anxiety with the above methods will keep your disorder from controlling your life. Visit a site like http://livinghopeclinic.org for more help.
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