Social Anxiety

Your mind is essentially intertwined wires, with signals shooting down each narrow path to give you your thoughts. Some thoughts are just facts absorbed. Others are taken from tiny pieces of information that trigger your imagination to create a completed story. Some of us have wires that like to twist, twist the information we receive to become negative, so negative that our body thinks it's in danger, like a lion is about to tear the flesh off of our bones.

When this process begins our wires start to spark. Our heart begins to race as though it is trying to run right out of our chest, the adrenaline rips through our body like a tornado destroying a town and then the feeling of impending doom begins. This triggers our stomach to want to erupt like a volcano, the heat in our body makes our cheeks set on fire and become red, our hands become sweaty, our senses become heightened and our breathing becomes difficult, like we are breathing through a straw. Then it happens, we feel it slowly creeping into the back of our eyes, the river of emotions is about to overflow. The tears start to stream down our face and we feel the need to run right out of this situation or fight.

But what is there to fight you ask? In reality nothing, in our head everything.

See we have let the current (information) run down an unintended (and unrealistic) path, causing our brain to short circuit. Once this has happened our battery is drained. We are exhausted.

Imagine feeling that every time you are put into a social situation? That is social anxiety. We can't just calm down, cheer up or snap out of it we just have to ride it out. Our body begins to work overtime to fight a threat that isn't actually there. The best thing you can do when you are with someone who experiences this is show us we are not in danger. Breath alongside us so we re gain a proper rhythm, give us a hug tell us everything will be OK or just stand by our side while we go through the process and be there when we come out the other side.

Sometimes just knowing we are not facing it alone is enough.

We may over react if you say something wrong or we may text you 2/3 times a day. We aren't trying to pee you off, our brains are just programmed differently.

For me personally if I don't hear from a friend I think they have fallen out with me or I have done something wrong, so I generally text them daily to check they are ok. If I am ignored or someone doesn't reply again I feel like I have done something wrong. My anxiety is triggered by the fear of being unliked and hated.

What are your anxiety triggers and how do you deal with them?

BethanyLouise xx