ROMANTICIZING LIFE AS A PERSON STRUGGLING WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY
Learning to live with your struggles
Romanticizing something that is considered a disorder might not sit well with many but hear me out first. I know this is a sensitive topic to talk about and if you have crippling anxiety coming in the way of your day-to-day functioning you need to seek professional help but what I am talking about here is on a lighter note.
I have always struggled with being around people, even before I knew what social anxiety is. Like many others, the problem I faced was the feeling of FOMO which comes accompanied by having to miss out on social gatherings(even though you do it as per your choice). And so I have decided to make sure I enjoy the moments I spend with myself to relieve myself of the strong sense of FOMO that I feel when I miss out on an event due to my anxiety.
So here are a few ways in which I do this:
DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE:
When you are alone it is hard to resist the temptation to go on your phone and just start scrolling, or to turn on your TV and binge-watch all your favorite shows. No doubt this does sound fun but for how long, one hour? or two hours? After a time you will get bored and might let yourself slip into the path of self-pity.
To avoid this, what you can do is plan something productive anything that you like, it could be painting, reading, cooking, learning about a topic you are passionate about- it could be anything that you are sure will give you a sense of achievement once you are done, instead of making you feel emotionally drained.
PAMPER YOURSELF:
Whenever you take some time away from all the social situations, be it a day off from work, school, or maybe a party, to recharge yourself use this opportunity to practice self-love. Expression of self-love can be different for each individual so do whatever suits you. For me, it is doing skin care picking up a fictional book, and letting myself transport into that world. You could cook yourself a delicious yet healthy meal(another perk of being by yourself, as I tell myself, is that you can avoid all that junk food that most of us are eating when around other people).
PRACTICING SELF REFLECTION:
The idea of being by yourself most of the time might sound depressing to many but it isn’t if you know how to spend your time wisely. When surrounded by the chaos and noise of other people around you it is hard to listen to your inner voice. So I believe it is not just important for people with social anxiety to self-reflect and learn to live with their thoughts but it is equally important for every other person to do this. Self-reflection allows for a person to think about their life, practice gratitude, delve deep into their beliefs about the various things going around them, and take time to understand their relationships with people around them.
Only people battling with social anxiety can understand how frustrating this can be specially when it comes in way of you wanting to enjoy your life and the solution to it I believe lies in understanding what brings ‘you’ joy not what is fun to others.
