How can I stop feeling anxious when I am out with friends?

When you are out with friends, to stop yourself from feeling anxious you can take deep breathes, or even bring a fidget spinner with you to help you.

Explore why you're feeling anxious. What exactly is it that you're worried about? What would need to change for you to feel better right now? When does the anxiety tend to come up and go away? It's important to explore these questions because as you can imagine, it's very different if your anxiety peaks on your way over to meet your friends and goes away once you start chatting, versus anxiety about saying the wrong thing that steadily escalates throughout your interactions. Either way, you can counter these feelings of anxiety using cognitive techniques. Your anxiety automatically fills in the worst case scenario, but challenge yourself to consider the best case scenario or the most likely scenario instead.