Social Anxiety Treatment
You deserve a rich and thriving social life. Let’s make it feel easier.
Social Anxiety is a Lonely Experience
If you live with social anxiety, you understand this dilemma: you want to spend more time out in the world connecting with others, but everything in your mind and body screams that it is dangerous. Every time you put yourself out there and try talking to someone new, your nerves take over and you walk away feeling ashamed. Meeting new people is really challenging when you freeze every time someone talks to you.
And it goes beyond typical social situations. You might be nervous to order coffee, walk into the kitchen at work, or even leave the house. You have so many wonderful qualities–your loved ones may know you to be thoughtful, hilarious, and talkative, even!–and you just want to show up as yourself around new people.
Social Anxiety can make your world feel so small. You might get a glimmer of excitement when someone invites you to a party, but when the time comes, you just feel too anxious to go. You want to move forward in your career, but the idea of interviewing causes full-body panic. You’d love to get out and explore a new neighborhood, but you imagine unfamiliar faces watching you, somehow knowing how out of place you are. Staying at home is lonely, but it’s safe.
Your experience of social anxiety may look like this:
Your body takes over in social situations: freezing, racing heart, sweating, blushing, mind going blank
The idea of going new places makes you highly anxious
You avoid situations that require “performance,” like phone calls, meetings, and parties
Dating and making new friends have historically been hard for you
You tend to ruminate on every interaction, wondering how others perceive you
You feel a sense of shame about how difficult socializing is for you
If any or all of these experiences resonate with you, speaking with a social anxiety therapist may be a positive step toward creating a greater sense of safety and connection in your life.
The Impact of Social Anxiety
Social anxiety can touch all parts of your life, which is part of what makes it so debilitating. Living with social anxiety often means running into limitations and barriers wherever you go, and in turn it becomes challenging to make things happen in your life. Here’s how it may practically look if you have struggled with social anxiety:
Friendships: You’ve had a hard time making new connections that will turn into friendships. You may avoid the social events where you’d meet them, clam up when they try to engage with you, or find an excuse when they want to plan something. It can even make it harder to turn an acquaintance into a friend: you often feel too self-conscious to ask them to hang out again with any consistency, and these relationships stay stagnant or eventually fizzle.
Romantic life: The idea of going on dates with new people may make you incredibly anxious. It feels hard to relax and let your personality shine, which makes it seem impossible to form a connection. You want to meet someone great, but you wind up avoiding the process because it feels pointless to put yourself through the discomfort for such a disappointing outcome.
Career: You want to get ahead in your career, but you find it challenging to show others how valuable your work is. Speaking up in meetings or doing presentations create a good deal of anxiety for you, so you may perform poorly or avoid them altogether. Networking feels impossible since you freeze up any time you meet someone new. Interviews are terrifying, and you’ve noticed you rarely get an offer afterward. You know you have so much to contribute, but you feel so uncomfortable communicating and advocating for yourself, so people can’t see how capable you are.
Social Anxiety Treatment in Michigan
Social anxiety often feels like it’s part of your identity, but with treatment, you’ll feel so much more like yourself. As we begin social anxiety treatment, clients start to notice subtle changes to the way they’re able to show up around others.
At first, you might feel like it’s possible to try certain things you used to avoid, and push through even if you’re feeling stressed. Then, over time, you might realize you just had a quick conversation without feeling completely overwhelmed. Eventually, the steps will feel bigger, and you’ll notice you’re feeling calm and present in situations that used to cause distress.
This is possible for you–even if the anxiety you’ve experienced has felt so big and overwhelming that you routinely feel swept up by it.
Social anxiety therapy can look like:
Understanding Triggers: You probably notice some environments, activities, and people trigger your anxiety more than others. We’ll work to understand what is happening for you in these moments so you can feel more in control
Addressing Root Cause: Social Anxiety Disorder isn’t just your nature–there’s a good reason these symptoms are showing up. Healing these underlying experiences and beliefs will be an important part of treatment
Incorporating Exposure: If/when you’re feeling up to it, we can identify baby steps you can take to slowly and safely broaden your comfort zone in social situations
Coping with Symptoms: While we’re working on long term healing, we will develop skills you can use to manage your anxiety in stressful social situations
If you’ve been living with social anxiety for as long as you can remember, this does not need to be your whole story. Instead of thinking of social anxiety as part of your personality, we can understand it as a response that hides your true self. Getting treatment will help you to show up as the multifaceted person you are, which will make it so much easier for you to connect with your people. With support, you can absolutely overcome social anxiety.
What If the Idea of Therapy Triggers my Social Anxiety?
You’re in good company. It is so common (expected, even!) for people to feel anxious reaching out or having their first few sessions. We’ll move at your pace. It may take a few weeks for you to feel comfortable opening up, and that’s okay!
It can be helpful to let your therapist know ahead of time that you are feeling anxious about starting therapy. You can do this in your inquiry email or in your initial consultation call with a new therapist. This will help them pace those initial sessions appropriately to help you relax.
A good social anxiety therapist will check in with you to see how you’re feeling, and they will get a good sense of when it might be safe to try new things.
It is helpful to remember that part of a therapist’s job is to help clients feel at ease–whether or not they have social anxiety. We will work through it together, without judgment.
Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more about how we can work together.