You might recognize this: you feel uncomfortable in a room filled with a lot of people or you blush when you meet someone for the first time. It is human to feel nervous or anxious in social situations. However, there are also people who experience intense anxiety during such situations. You may be afraid to behave in a certain way or to exhibit anxiety symptoms (such as blushing, trembling or sweating). You are afraid that others will judge you negatively because of these symptoms. The fear of a negative impression also has an influence on how you come across to others. It sometimes seems like you are, for example, weird or boring, while this does not have to be the case at all! As a rule, social anxiety is characterized by fear and discomfort in many different social situations.

Do you experience social anxiety? You can improve considerably by applying the tips below! (If you still have trouble, do not hesitate and ask for help!)

Just do it!
As long as you stay at home in your safe environment and keep avoiding social situations, the fear will continue to exist. When you are anxious in a social situation, there is always a moment when the fear diminishes or even disappears. During a social situation, try to focus on this moment of decline in fear. You have to trust that this moment will happen. Once you no longer resist your fear and no longer avoid it, you learn to not be afraid of social situations anymore. The best way to get rid of your fear is to place yourself in a social situation. Before you encounter such situation, you can think to yourself: ‘What is the worst thing that can happen to me? To turn red in public? So what!!’ The more you expose yourself to social situations, the better you will be able to deal with such situations.

You matter
‘If I say something, everyone will think I am stupid.’ ‘If I start a conversation with these people, the color of my face will turn bright red.’ These are thoughts that can play up when you encounter a social situation. It is important to be aware that you have the same rights and you are just as valuable as everyone else, this means that you are not better or less than anyone else. There is no reason to compare yourself with others because you are unique in your own way! So dare to take your place and to stand up for yourself!

Create trust in yourself
In order to achieve this, it is important that your self-confidence increases. This does not happen overnight. So give yourself some time, your self-confidence needs time to grow. Now we are back at point 1 ‘Just do it.’ Go out of your comfort zone and show yourself that you can do it. Before you leave your comfort zone, you can think of a situation from the past where you have succeeded in dealing well with your fear. You must have relied on yourself back then, otherwise you did not come to that victory! Perhaps the sweat broke you out a number of times during social situations, but no one is flawless. After all, we are only human!