Social Anxiety to Social Confidence

Just an update an apology! This was created for my YouTube channel but the same goes for you guys using this website.

First of all, thank you to all those who have visited this site and left comments. While reading them I can see that you sharing your thoughts and personal experiences is helping many more people than this site could ever do on its own, so keep sharing! For many people with social anxiety, even posting up a comment anonymously can be anxiety provoking so I really appreciate all those who have taken the time to write something. Apologies that I have not managed to reply to all individually.

I am currently take a break from the blog and my videos. I need to focus my time on other projects in my life. This is just a temporary measure though and I am itching to get back to taking this site to the next level.

I hope you are all doing well and finding ways to move your life in the direction you want to move it in, or if not, then that you are not far away from getting to that stage.

Best wishes,

Nick

In this video I answer a questions put to me about challenging negative thoughts. There is much more to be said about changing negative thinking and I do not want to give the impression that what I say in this video is a complete solution, but hopefully it is a useful part of the puzzle. I hope it also offers a slightly different perspective to that commonly given.

To see the comments written about any of my videos just click on the video while it is playing to view it in YouTube.

In this sixth chapter of my life and social anxiety I talk about my 21st birthday, trying to get away from my problems, my SA getting worse, supermarkets, walking, panic attacks and irrational thoughts. This is the last in this series of videos as from this point onwards I started working at overcoming my social anxiety.

If you missed out on previous chapters you can view them here…
Chapter 1: Primary School
Chapter 2: Secondary School
Chapter 3: College
Chapter 4: Work
Chapter 5: Personal Life

In this fifth chapter of my life and social anxiety I talk about my private life in the same period as I covered in Chapter four. I discuss relationship breakups, friends (and being without them), new years eve, going to court, workmen, flat hunting and landlords. Looking back its no wonder that my social anxiety got worse from this point onwards. I am interested to know if you have had similar experiences so please leave a comment below. Also, it will really help other people visiting this site if they can identify with your stories.

If you want to get my videos sooner before they are released on this site then subscribe to my YouTube channel, SocialAnxietyVideo. There is also a great community of other YouTubers making videos and talking about social anxiety. You will need to create an account before you subscribe to channels but it’s very quick, easy, free and there is no catch or spam as a consequence. Just visit YouTube.com and click on ‘Create Account’ in the top right corner.

If you have ever tried job hunting while experiencing social phobia you likely know how hard it is. You will also likely know how easy it is to get unfairly treated in the workplace and how hard it is to stand up for yourself. In this fourth chapter of my life and social anxiety I talk about work, job interviews and not being assertive.

In this video I briefly explain the difference between some of the terms commonly used in association with social anxiety. These include Social Anxiety, Social Phobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder, Shyness and Introversion

Exercise has a number of really important benefits for someone who is experiencing anxiety or depression. In this video I talk about what those benefits are, what you need to do to gain those benefits and also what is a good approach when introducing exercise into your life. I will be thinking of you all when I am out on my runs and hoping that somewhere out there you are joining me in improving your life.

This is the third chapter of my life with social anxiety. It covers the two years that I spent at college. I talk about a bullying incident, going to friends houses, work experience, presentations, and my driving test…which didn’t go very well!

I was recently interviewed on BBC Radio Bristol to help raise awareness of anxiety disorders and also advertise our services at Social Anxiety West. It is something that I would never have thought I would be able to do back when I was socially anxious, so it feels quite an achievement to be able to do it now. Below is an edit of my section. The discussion was an hour in total and starred some of my good friends. You can listen to the whole show for a limited time using this link, Complete radio show on BBC iPlayer. It will only be the correct show if it is dated 6th March 2010. It is the middle hour that is on anxiety.