How To Overcome Social Anxiety – Help From A Hypnotist

Many of us suffer from social anxiety in our day-to-day lives, whether it’s feeling nervous before giving a presentation or going on a date.¹

But for some, social anxiety can be crippling, leaving them afraid of even the most casual social interactions.

Those with social anxiety experience more than just the usual nerves. This disorder involves an intense fear of certain social situations and may make people withdraw from the world.

Managing social anxiety may be a challenge, but no matter how nervous you may be before a social engagement, there are multiple ways you can manage social anxiety.

Book a hypnotherapy session with me to overcome social anxiety

The underlying cause of social anxiety is the fear of being criticised, judged, embarrassed in public or as a result of bullying.

People with social anxiety often fear that they will do something that will lead to them being ostracised by their social group. Even if a person is aware that their fears are irrational, they may still be unable to control them.

Social anxiety can happen anytime but is most common when a person is experiencing something new. This can include meeting new people, applying for a job or attending social gatherings.

Another common cause of social anxiety is when a person is forced to be the centre of attention. This can include public speaking, performing on stage or speaking up during class or a meeting.

Social anxiety is the result of subconscious (automatic) behaviours in the brain; every time the thoughts about the social situation arise, the feelings in the body follow and it reinforces the person feeling very uncomfortable about going out again. This then activates the thinking, feeling and believing cycle, or better known as a habit. 

The more thoughts go into the social situation, those feelings are felt and reinforced again in the brain, so the feeling of anxiety will continue. In much the same way that repeatedly going to the gym makes your muscles stronger, these negative thought patterns grow stronger every time you experience anxiety.

Social anxiety can manifest itself in many ways, but the most common symptoms include ²:

• Intense worry before and during social situations
• Fear of being watched or judged by others
• Fear that you’ll embarrass yourself
• Physical symptoms, such as an upset stomach, shaking, sweating and feeling dizzy
• A fear of being alone during social situations

These symptoms can range in severity, but people with social anxiety will often find them to be unbearable. As a result, people with social anxiety will often purposefully avoid social situations, closing themselves off from the world and their friends and family.  

There are a variety of ways to overcome social anxiety, but by learning a variety of tips and techniques and practising them every time the feeling arises, you can limit or even remove your social anxiety in a matter of weeks. The most important point to remember is this is a learnt pattern of behaviour, its a habit that has been formed to help deal with uncomfortable situations. Our brain is very capable of change, through its neuroplasticity. Each time you interrupt the old pattern of social anxiety, the brain is now developing new neutral networks to deal with the situation.

Social anxiety can often make people afraid or unwilling to go to social situations, but if you find yourself suddenly feeling anxious when out and about, there are a few small things you can do to interrupt this pattern of anxiety:

• Breathing techniques: One of the most effective ways to deal with anxiety is through breathing techniques: breathe in through the nose for four seconds before exhaling through the mouth for four more seconds. Repeat this for as long as you need.
• Taking control of your mind: When practicing a breathing technique, talking to yourself can help rewire the brain from old patterns of anxiety. Say things like “I am safe”, “I am supported” or “I am confident”. By repeatedly saying things like this with positive emotion, you can train your mind to accept them as the truth. This is a form of self hypnosis – so it must be done with repetition and positive emotion to ensure the changes are made into your subconscious mind.
• Peripheral vision: Social anxiety can make everything constrict, leaving you with tunnel vision. To combat this, find and stare at a focus point at eye level for a few seconds before gradually expanding your focus to notice everything in your peripheral vision. By doing this, you can retrain your mind and body to expand during a stressful situation.
• Bilateral stimulation: When you feel anxiety begin to take hold of you, one simple way to block it out is through bilateral stimulation. Grab an object- this could be anything from your keys to a water bottle- and pass it from one hand to another. Anxiety often activates one side of the brain over the other, but by doing this you can activate both sides simultaneously, which interrupts the brain’s normal patterns that lead to anxiety.
• Repetition: The most important factor with all of these mechanisms is repetition. By doing these over and over again each time the habit arises, you will gradually be able to interrupt the brain patterns that lead to social anxiety.

It’s important to bear in mind that no single technique is guaranteed to work for everyone. By trying out a few different techniques, you can get a better idea of the ones that work for you and begin to incorporate them into your everyday life. Repetition is key to interrupt the learnt pattern of behaviour that causes you to suffer in any kind of social setting.

There are many forms of therapy for social anxiety, but one of the most effective is hypnotherapy, because it heals to the root cause of the issue.

Hypnotherapy allows a person to access their subconscious mind, where their most basic behavioural patterns reside. These patterns were formed from childhood, where your brain was still under development. The environment, people around you, have influenced the way you think, feel and behave. As a result your personality and behaviours are automatic, and ingrained – with the help of a hypnotist these patterns, behaviours and difficult feelings can be changed.

There are several different factors that can lead to social anxiety in a person; sometimes, it can be genetic, but oftentimes, it is the result of a traumatic memory, often experienced during childhood or adolescence.

You may not be able to remember the cause of your social anxiety, but with the help of hypnotherapy, you can gain access to your subconscious mind, identify the patterns that result in your anxiety and begin to learn how to block them out, forcing your brain to use different patterns.

Our subconscious runs about 95-98% of our lives, which is why it can be difficult to overcome social anxiety even when you know it’s irrational. There is no way of “thinking” out of a problem, the feeling centre must be accessed to make real life changes.

Under the guidance of a professional hypnotist, a person can access their subconscious to identify the patterns that result in social anxiety.

Once these patterns have been located, the feelings will be gently removed and replaced with empowering positive thoughts and behaviours. A person will also learn to put up roadblocks to interrupt these patterns. By doing this again and again, they can remove the anxiety if it ever occurs again.

To find out more about how hypnotherapy can help you overcome your social anxiety, get in touch today.

References

1. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/anxiety/types-of-anxiety/social-anxiety-disorder
2. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/social-anxiety-disorder#causes

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