Ending The Pain of Social Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Social anxiety can feel painful. You know you are fully capable of thinking and talking yet in those social moments that anxiety takes grip and you find yourself trapped within your worry and panic.

It’s no wonder that if you struggle with social anxiety, you may do all you can to avoid social situations and those uncomfortable feelings.

Yet it isn’t always possible to avoid others, after all, you would probably like to enjoy spending time with others and doing the things you want to do and you may want to progress in your career and contribute to things that are important to you.

As a former sufferer of social anxiety, I know all too well the torment it brings, how it can rob you of enjoyment from social things and how it feels like you can’t be the real you around others. So what can be done about social phobia?

When Social Anxiety Strikes

If you struggle with social anxiety, you probably do all you can to avoid situations in which you may feel uncomfortable. You may want to go to that party or meal yet another part of you is desperately thinking about how you can get out of it or have an ‘escape route’ planned.

I know that when I struggled with that anxiety I would often cancel at the last minute or, if the anxiety was too bad, even feign illness. Where possible I would have a couple of drinks to try and calm the social anxiety monster so I could be more relaxed and be more me.

It would drive me nuts that with one or two people such as close friends I could have a great time talking and joking. Yet put me in a bigger group or with people I didn’t really know that well or in a work meeting with senior staff and I became frozen with fear.

You may do similar things to how I did things – I would worry about how I looked, what I was doing and saying and what others were thinking about me. Sometimes if I had something to say I would spend so long trying to get the words just right in my head that by the time I was about to speak it was no longer the right moment so I stayed quiet (while criticising myself in my head). If someone else said what I was thinking it would be even worse.

Sometimes in work meetings I would tell myself that I was ok because someone else there hadn’t said anything – but then when they did I would feel anxious about needing to be seen to say something and it would be ten times worse. Then after group or social situations I would replay all the worst bits in my head and feel worse.

It felt like I was running round and round on a hamster wheel, desperate to break free yet still trapped by the social anxiety.

Break Free of Social Anxiety 

I know from personal experience and working with hundreds of people that hypnosis is the most effective way to end social anxiety. No matter how bad you think your social phobia is right now, you really can stop worrying about what others think, stop feeling bad in those situations and start feeling relaxed just being yourself.

To start this process here is one thing you can start doing now to loosen the grip of your social anxiety:

a) Close your eyes, focus on your breathing and just relax. Start to allow your out breath to be slightly longer than your in breath (you can count 7 as you breathe in and 11 on the out breath). Do this for a few minutes and feel comfortable and relaxed.

b) Staying relaxed, imagine watching yourself in those social situations looking calm, relaxed and comfortable around others. Watch yourself looking calm in your posture and in the expression on your face. You can run through a specific situation or a number of situations yet make them more vivid in your mind each time. You really can train your mind to link feeling calm and relaxed with those social situations with everything going ok.

In addition, in social situations themselves make sure you relax your breathing (use the 7/11 method mentioned above) and start to switch your focus from what’s going on inside your head to what is going on around you. You can do this by noticing things in the environment, for example, notice the pictures on the walls, you could spot the colours in what someone is wearing or take notice of the details of what is on the table. Make a conscious effort to notice what is going on outside you and you will have less focus on all those anxious thoughts inside.

Get Help With Social Anxiety

And if you need powerful and effective help to end the pain of your social anxiety then give me a call and we can chat about the options. After all how good would it be to feel relaxed and at ease in all those situations around others in your life?

Dan Regan

Social Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

www.danreganhypnotherapy.co.uk/issues/confidence

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