Blushing, Shaking, and Sweating: The Fear That People Will See
For many people with social anxiety, a special layer of dread attaches to the visible symptoms: blushing, shaking hands, a trembling voice, sweating. It is...
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Practical, honest guides to quieting the fear of being judged and building real connection.
Making Room for Anxiety Instead of Fighting It
The most natural response to anxiety is to fight it: to tense up against the racing heart, to try to force the feeling away, to demand of yourself that you...
Catastrophizing: How a Small Worry Becomes a Disaster
You take a small possibility and follow it, link by link, all the way to the worst imaginable outcome. "If I go to this party, I won't know what to say, an...
The Art of the Follow-Up Question
If interest is the engine of good conversation, questions are the fuel, and the most powerful of them all is the humble follow-up question. Master this one...
How to Eat in Front of Other People Without Panicking
The fear of eating or drinking in front of others is a specific and surprisingly common form of social anxiety, and a particularly isolating one, because i...
How to Talk to Cashiers, Servers, and Strangers in Shops
For some people with social anxiety, even the smallest interactions with strangers, ordering a coffee, asking a shop assistant for help, chatting briefly w...
When Social Anxiety Overlaps With Depression
Social anxiety often does not travel alone. One of its most common companions is depression, and the two can feed each other in ways that make both harder...
Surviving a Breakup or the End of a Friendship
Some rejections are large: the end of a relationship, the fading or fracture of a close friendship. These deserve their own words, because while the same p...
Progress Is Not a Straight Line: Staying With It for the Long Haul
Anyone working to overcome social anxiety eventually runs into the same discouraging reality: progress is not a straight line. You have brave weeks and fri...
Mind Reading: Why You Assume People Are Judging You
Someone glances at you and looks away, and half a second later you feel a drop of shame, certain they were thinking something unkind. You did not decide th...