Quote by famous American novelist: Cheryl Strayed. The author of four books, her award-winning writing has been published widely in national magazines and anthologies.

How to Help Yourself Overcome Social Anxiety.

It’s all in your head.

Have you tried the ‘faking it’ trick?

It goes like this, if you have time to plan for an upcoming social situation, you should imagine what it would be like, and then, what it SHOULD be like.

Now, once you’ve done that, you show up to the situation, and get it done with. For once, don’t think too much before saying and/or doing anything, that’ll only make you nervous and uneasy, seeing that, the other party might have some (facial) reaction to it which once you notice, you basically start panicking internally, thinking that you’re doing/you’ve done something wrong, something you weren’t supposed to, which is exactly what should be avoided.

I’m pretty sure Elon Musk doesn’t need any introduction. Basically, he’s a god.

As Elon Musk once said… ‘think from first principles’.

So let’s try and do that.

Let’s imagine a quick conversation with a stranger.

Now forget that you THINK or that you ARE a socially anxious person, and put all your thoughts, and focus, towards talking to the person in front of you, essentially, empty your brain of thoughts, and stop all the multitasking.

Now, assume you’re just another person (who’s totally comfortable with social situations) and talk, listen to what’s going on, and reply. It wouldn’t be that hard. In the beginning, it’d feel somewhat awkward and different, but you get used to it.

It’s kinda like playing a life simulator game like: The Sims series.

This is the ‘faking it’ trick or, just assuming rather?

It’s brilliant, and designed to do a job, that is, to get a job done by somebody else who has trouble doing that job due to some notion that is a creation of their own mind.

Now, If that seems like it’s offensive, my apologies, but this is the method that works, based upon the information that I’ve found out, from my own experience.

I hope you manage to overcome your social anxiety, or at the very least, manage to lessen it to an extent which is comfortable to you, however only if you want to (although I’m pretty sure you’d want to).

And most of all, be strong enough to not be afraid of judgement, if you get someone’s name wrong, it’s not the end of the world, or the end of the relationship you have with that person. It’s okay. People make mistakes, and mistakes like these are the most common ones.

Best,

Zb