Top Social Anxiety Tips for Confidence!

Psychologist Dr. Ali's favorite exercises to help you overcome social anxiety disorder's fear of rejection, evaluation, and embarrassment.

Contents:
0:00 - Introduction
0:50 - Getting ready
1:10 - Core fears
3:30 - Fear of anxiety
5:41 - Social anxiety exercises
13:04 - Real feedback

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For information purposes only. Does not constitute clinical advice. Consult your local medical authority for advice. The information in this video was accurate as of the upload date, September 21, 2022.

If you or someone you know needs help immediately, you should take one of the following actions:
- go to your nearest hospital emergency room

[faisalarghandiwal]

My big fear is the fear of being seen anxious

[sergiomendoza]

My core fears are being judged by others and then leading to rejection/being alone and seen as a loser/weird. Thanks for the great video!

[akashverma]

Even thinking about these exercises makes me anxious.

[weykzo]

when i hear about these exercises i want to burst out crying

[j.r.]

I don't like video calls and talking to strangers can make me feel uncomfortable and insecure. I'm very proud of myself that I managed to chat with all of my sons teachers per video call for parent teacher conferences this week anyways! I was worried about moments of awkward silence or that I would come across as nervous or stumbling over my words/ saying weird things. But none of this really happened and I managed to stay pretty connected and even had some moments where I enjoyed the conversation. 😊

[oldrap]

Binging your videos and crying because it is such a relief to hear someone validate and articulate what I experience nearly every day. I would love to try some of the exposures but unfortunately the stakes and in turn, the fears are doubled because I live in a country where I'm not fluent in the language yet.

[amandavaldegas]

My issue stems from my habit of reading too much into body language and social cues. If I’m feeling good and confident and approach someone, and they look visibly uncomfortable or nervous I can’t help but shut down and it gets awkward very fast where I want to run away 😅 this comes to play more with people in a romantic scenario or people that are not as open or enthusiastically friendly with me. The sense of comfort is needed for me to navigate these situations.

[Victory]

I have struggled with mental illness and my mental health since I was a kid. Before I even knew what those terms were. After years of depression, anxiety, and even an attempt to take my life, I never thought I would be able to live without psych medications. I clung to them because it was the only thing that made my mind quiet, but it also made me a zombie. Microdosing has given me control of my mental health for the first time, and they essentially gave me my life back.

[ocdandanxiety]

Love this! The more we face uncertainty and doubt and respond differently to it, the more confident and less anxious we become! 👍

[missoctober]

My social anxiety is worse around certain types of people. Anyone else relate?

[DivinelyRoseTalks]

The biggest thing keeping people with social anxiety is often their mindset. These tips will actually help you, if you think the whole world is just judging only you, then you're wrong. I used to suffer from extreme SA and the only way I got rid of it was once a few years ago by drinking then eventually exposure to the things I was afraid of... It's not easy because it's a battle within yourself. SA is very hard to overcome when it's at it's strongest, but you have to be comfortable with being judged, and realizing at the end of the day you are completely normal, if not it's ok to be different. You must get to a point of being tired of being afraid that you will do anything to be normal. Accepting your anxiety and overcoming it is powerful, you need to be vulnerable in order to be strong sometimes. It's not a weakness or something to be ashamed of, you have to see yourself as a strong person for dealing with such a scary negative human emotion, and once you overcome it, you will feel stronger than most people.

[drali]

In case you’re wondering, Mario Kart DS is my favorite version.

[aliseyar]

My biggest fear is loneliness. I’ve lost friends last couple years. They were really close to me. It broke my heart so much, then consequently i feel i have to be funny to my friends and i crate clown mask. End of the day i would say this is not me, i’m not happy with current me. I want to be myself even i feel sad and lonely.

[RyanScarbrough]

I'm afraid people will think I'm anxious and make them anxious. Then when they become anxious I become even more anxious. It's so sad. 🙁

[suqarlatte]

My core fear I think is people judging me for who I am, how I act and what I look like. I’m scared that in someone’s eyes I’m not good enough..? And that I’ll be rejected and left alone in all situations, although I do love being alone a lot of the times in my life. But Idk..

[mnemoh]

Thank you. I did the core fear exercise and discovered (although I deep down already knew) that my core fears are that people will not accept me and I'll suffer consequences for being an outcast.
I realize that living in my fear will inevitably push people away and my fears will come true and the cycle continues with me being more afraid.
I think for me, instead of always thinking about what other people are thinking about me, I need to do the things I value doing and be the person who I want to be.

[powerviolents]

i like how the rejection exercises section made me immediately tense up and feel an intense feeling of dread lol

[harristytydawg]

My fear is being judged. I didn’t use to be like this but moving to a different state in your early 20’s trying to make friends and having people ghost you with no reasoning you start to wonder if something is wrong with you. If you wonder enough, you actually start believing something is wrong with you which is what happened.

[Phoenix_]

One thing that helped me was just doing stuff alone, like going to a coffee shop or a movie. I’ve even been to a concert alone. Had a great time with myself and I wasn’t anxious 🙂🤘

[missflummadiddle]

my core fear is being laughed at, people making jokes about me, being ignored and laughed at when I try to be serious or tell how I feel, and when I don't want to do something and refuse but other person is imposing so I give in but I feel resentful and bitter later on. I fear being assertive and that if I am not able to do that so people will make me their puppet to joke about. I don't fear being left alone, I fear being this puppet that has to come to her master on any command