[Image courtesy of Vaqawi] If you were a shy child you're not alone. 4 in 5 people are estimated to have been shy as children, and half of those then continue feeling shy occasionally as adults e.g. when going to parties or talking to strangers in the street. Feeling shy is a natural emotion. But problems occur when it becomes so uncomfortable that it makes you want to avoid social situations altogether. Wh ...

[Image courtesy of e-magic] The world can be an unfair place at times, with people seemingly conspiring to make your life difficult. When people do something to annoy you 'losing it' and venting your fury might seem like a good way of sticking up for yourself. But constantly losing your temper at the merest slight is only going to harm your relationships with work colleagues, friends and family, as well as ...

[Picture courtesy of a4gpa] Following on from previous articles, in which I discussed assertiveness and how to say 'no', I'm now going to discuss why you should add negotiation to your growing list of skills. As with overcoming many of the symptoms of social anxiety, negotiation is about maintaining a balance between being fair to yourself and fair to others. Learn how to change your steps Social interactio ...

[photo courtesy of aurevoirkatie] Being asked to do favours and to help people out is just a part of everyday life. Whilst being able to decline requests if they're too inconvenient isn't a problem for most, if you're socially anxious then being able to say 'No' is fraught with hazards. The trick is knowing how to be fair to yourself in assessing whether to do the favour, and then being assertive in how you ...

In a previous post I discussed how to respond to criticism objectively, and in a realistic manner so it wont upset you. This time I'm going to focus on the flip side of the coin, and discuss why compliments should be accepted graciously as a gift, rather than shrunk away from if you're socially anxious. The problem with social anxiety, and the low self esteem that can accompany it, is that you tend to view ...

Social anxiety disorder is rooted in the chronic fear of being negatively judged or insulted. If you're suffering from the low self esteem that partners social phobia then criticism always seems spiteful and upsetting because it triggers your self punishing, painful thoughts. However, there shouldn't be any reason for you to live in chronic fear of barbed comments if you can teach yourself how to respond ob ...

(Photo courtesy of Steven Fernandez) The painful memories of feeling victimised, humiliated and isolated as a result of being bullied can hurt for a very long time. Whilst being bullied can have a massive influence on the way you viewed yourself as a child, that doesn't mean it has to be the way you think about yourself, or make you feel socially anxious, for the rest of your life. The impact of being bulli ...

This new website is currently under development and needs quite a bit of tidying up before it's ready. When it's been give a facelift it will provide weekly articles offering advice on overcoming social anxiety disorder and social phobia using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. Millions of people currently suffer from social anxiety and probably don't realize they don't have a medically diagnosed cond ...