Social Anxiety to Social Confidence

Continuing the story of my life, in this second chapter I talk about what life was like for me in secondary school (high school) in relation to social anxiety. I talk about friends, bullying, skipping lesson, eating in the canteen and lots more. You can watch chapter one which covers the primary school years here.

I have prepared this document which is intended as information for people who are new to the subject of social anxiety. It is mainly designed to help individuals educate their family, friends, carers and health care professionals about social anxiety and social phobia, but you may find it useful and interesting as a sufferer yourself. When trying to explain your social anxiety to the people who are in your life it can often be helpful to have to have some information sourced from neutral third party that clearly explains everything so you do not have to. This is what this document aims to do. It answers the following questions and can be downloaded using the link below.

• What is social anxiety and social phobia?
• How common is social anxiety and when does it start?
• Is social phobia a recognised medical condition?
• Isn’t social phobia just a term made up to sell medications?
• Are socially anxious people anti-social?
• Are socially anxious people just shy?
• Are socially anxious people fearful around everyone?
• How does social phobia develop?
• What is most likely to be the cause?
• Does anxiety involve your body as well as your mind?
• What happens in the body when you are anxious?
• What are the consequences of this?
• Is social anxiety the same experience for everyone?
• How do socially anxious people manage their fears?
• Do the safety behaviours used help?
• Is anxiety only experienced when around other people?
• What kind of thoughts do socially anxious people have?
• Won’t alcohol and just putting yourself out there sort it out?
• What kind of situations do socially anxious people find difficult?
• Why don’t they just snap out of it and pull themselves together?
• What other feelings accompany social anxiety?
• Does social phobia commonly occur with anything else?

Click here to download the ‘Information on Social Anxiety’ document

In these videos I start to tell my story of my social anxiety and how it developed throughout my life. Chapter one starts with my early childhood and primary school years.