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What do you fear about social situations?

Creator: @cheerfulIceCream

We all have our particular sets of fears or negative beliefs that stimulate anxiety. It can be fearing people noticing the physical symptoms of your anxiety or them having overly negative perception of you. We can call them "inaccurate thinking". Identifying those beliefs and possible consequences can provide us with valuable insights to overcome them.

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Some people might struggle with it for reasons like, they have those thoughts so often it's feels normal. And that's okay! Below are some tricks to help with it. (That I leaned from Martin M. Anthony's book!)

1. When you're in a social setting that makes you anxious, (you can also visualize this!) be mindful & notice the shift in your anxiety, the physical sensations like chest tightening or maybe stomach acting up. Ask yourself what you're thinking. Notice how your thoughts have changed in the last few minutes.


2. Remember that most anxious thoughts are emitted in forms of predictions. Ask yourself what you think will happen or what might these people be thinking about you.


3. The reason why one mostly feels anxious about being judged negatively is that they believe it can lead to significant consequences or will say something is wrong with them. Ask yourself what the consequences can be. What does it say about you if someone you're meeting for the first time doesn't like you?

You can also use the following questions to identify those beliefs and if they have any realistic consequences.

  • What do you usually fear will go wrong? Getting rejected? Saying the wrong things? Spilling something? Fill the input window completing the following sentence - "What if I...."
  • What's the worst thing they could think about me? View me as less valuable? Boring? Nerdy? Incompetent? Weak? Crazy? Ugly? Overly anxious? Fill the input window completing the following sentence- "What if they...."
  • What can be the consequences?