The societal expectation for December to be a joyful, festive time puts a lot of pressure on many people. While there are certainly those who love the festive season, many others experience the so-called holiday blues. Instead of feeling happiness and hope, they feel depression and anxiety.
There are a number of reasons for this, but for people with social anxiety, the social aspect of the holidays plays a huge role. During the holidays, family comes together, including those who you may not know so well. Everyone wants to know about what is going on in your life. When you suffer from social anxiety, this becomes exhausting.
Social anxiety is a mental illness that is far more distressing than it might seem to outsiders. With social anxiety, people feel constant stress and worry about being around others. They fear making a fool of themselves, and especially dread the possibility that they will blush and sweat uncontrollably. That fear itself often leads to them blushing and sweating.
The good news is that with social anxiety treatment, you can face your social phobia and come out on top. Many people have successfully treated their social anxiety and now feel far more comfortable in social situations. Here is how treatment for social anxiety can help with your holiday blues.
Relieve anxiety surrounding social events
Social anxiety is not reserved for the times you are actually with people. When suffering with social anxiety, you worry about social events that are yet to come, and reproach yourself for how past social events may have gone. Social anxiety treatment helps by training you to challenge the thoughts surrounding social events.
Instead of obsessing over what your mind tells you will happen at the next event, you are able to understand not only that things can go differently, but that worrying now is unhelpful. Rather than constantly replaying how you remember past events to have gone, you learn that the way others see you is not so important, and that they are not thinking about it nearly as much as you are.
Enjoy social gatherings
Most people with social anxiety don’t want to avoid all social gatherings. On the contrary, they want to attend them without the anxiety and actually enjoy them. Treatment for social anxiety helps you achieve this. You learn to lessen the stress when you are at social gatherings. You also learn that blushing and sweating, or not knowing exactly what to say, is not as terrible as it seems.
There are tools you can use to help you manage social events soon after starting treatment. These tools will help you manage the self-fulfilling prophecies that cause you to struggle at social events, as well as helping you get through the stammering, blushing, and sweating without seeing it as a catastrophe.
Talk about your social anxiety
Social anxiety is understandably a very lonely experience. However, when you start social anxiety treatment, you immediately learn that you are not alone. You finally have someone to talk to about your social anxiety, without the high stakes your mind tells you exist at social gatherings. You also learn that social anxiety is fairly common. Over 7% of Americans suffer from social anxiety. That amounts to over fifteen million people!
Social anxiety treatment can help with your December blues. It can be a turning point in your struggle with social events, and lead to a much happier life.