How to Get Rid of Social Phobia?
As an international student, I have many difficulties when I am living far away from my hometown.
When I first came here, I can’t stop thinking about my family, my friends, and the food in China, and everything here is strange to me. Moreover, my English speaking skill is not good enough to ensure that I can communicate with people here without any barrier. Also, it is very hard for me to speak with unfamiliar people, especially foreigners, because cultural diversity often makes me anxious.
It’s stressful for me to fit in to a new environment. When I see people are participating in group events together, I really want to become one of them, but I am afraid of it at the same time, because I am unacquainted with them. Actually, I’m really comfortable with my original friend circle. People who are in it have already been my friends, so I don’t have to worry about how to behave myself when communicating with them. Making new friends makes me nervous because I have to learn about new people, get to know a new way of interacting with people and consider how to talk with them to avoid unnecessary conflicts. I guess this is the so-called Social Phobia in Psychology.
In fact, I’m willing to make new friends, but I am too shy to do it. Most of the people who have already became my friends in UCSB are the ones who actively came to me, and I hardly talk to strange people first. I really want to try my best to do away with this problem, but it’s just being so hard to me.
In order to alleviate this situation, I joined a team named Reel Loud, which is going to hold a silent film festival at UCSB in spring quarter. In this team, most members are Americans, which make me nervous while meeting with them. At first, I always keep quiet when attending a group meeting. However, as a member of a group, I know I have to contribute something instead of being silent all the time. So I told the group leader my suggestions after the meeting privately, and she gave me positive feedback, which was a great encouragement to me. Then, I started to talk a little about my own view through the group meeting. To be honest, it was terrifying that there were many eyes are staring at me and I felt like the whole room was so quiet when I’m speaking. I finally took courage to speak in front of them, although I kept my voice down and it was actually like a whisper.
Admittedly, I am still very shy when facing with unfamiliar people, but I’m making progress. And I hope I can become more outgoing in the future. I know there are lots of people have the same problem as mine, so I highly recommend them to participate in certain group event or club that they are interested in. This will help them get rid of introversion more effectively.
