Seasonal Social Anxiety is an unusual fear of being judged and evaluated negatively, inferiority self-consciousness, embarrassment, humiliation, and depression.
We live in an age of anxiety with a combination of countless disasters in the news whilst being bombarded by constant ads; it comes as no surprise that the number of people diagnosed with anxiety is at an all-time high.
Living with seasonal social anxiety can be frustrating and as with many things, change doesn’t happen overnight.
You might feel like your mind has an ability to instantly jump a million steps into worst-case anxiety.
Therefore, here are 8 ways of avoiding seasonal social anxiety
- Share Your Experiences
Share your experience with friends and family or even talk about them online. Many people often feel ashamed of their anxiety and can be incredibly reluctant to share it.
The media often lead people to believe that mental illness is a weakness that makes people other than what they are going through. We all have mental health and it is reported that up to 1 in 3 of us will at some point experience a mental health illness and it’s okay to talk about it.
2. Control Your Thoughts and Reality
It’s important to remember that social anxiety feeds on a thought that emphasizes danger and negativity symptoms.
Luckily, thinking is a habit and can, of course, be changed. Try and produce a thought that will not lead to anxiety.
3. Shift Your Attention
Seasonal social anxiety has a way of grabbing your attention and making you self-critical. It comes with symptoms such as fast heartbeat, sweating, redness in the face an so on; it feels like a domino effect that cannot be interrupted.
Instead of putting your focus on these symptoms, try and focus your attention on something else that’ll distract and take your mind off these feelings.
4. Face Your Fears
Yes, avoiding social situations will make you feel better at that particular moment.
But remember, this is only a short term solution which prevents you from learning how to cope and will make you avoid a social situation in the fatter more.
Get used to being in the gathering of people, attend occasions and hang out with friends and family. This will not be easy at first but with time and consistency, you’ll get better at it!
5. Stop Trying to be Perfect
It’s easy to forget that no one is perfect when we live in a world that aspires to achieve perfection. It’s also easy to forget that not everyone will like us no matter what.
It’s often forgotten that it’s okay to make a mistake as it makes us human.
6. Play the Rejection Game
The rejection game is about gaining some sort of rejection through a series of different challenges.
The purpose of the game is to encourage you to see rejection differently and to face your fears whilst maintaining a certain element of control over the situation.
7. Try Breathing Exercise
Having standby breathing exercise can help you control your anxiety; having a steady breath has a direct impact on your heart rate; it affects the pace of your heartbeat, and as your heart rate slows down, your mind and thought will.
8. Exercise Self-control
Self-control means self-discipline. Always discipline yourself so that you will not be a victim of seasonal anxiety.
Conclusion
People have to avoid seasonal social anxiety because it has negative effects which are: feelings of inadequate inferiority, self-consciousness embarrassment, humiliation, and depression and it can even lead to an early grave.