It seems more and more often…
I speak with clients and people around the world who report facing social anxiety, but face symptoms not in the way you would think.
They’re not shy or necessarily quiet or alone or anti-social.
If anything, they try to smile a lot, crack jokes, talk a lot about one topic they are comfortable with or filter their speech excessively in fear of not offending anybody.
Or it’s a personality or persona propped up and fueled by excessive caffeine, alcohol, drugs (legal or illegal), etc, which inevitably leads to burning out and other health issues.
Social Anxiety impacts approximately around 20-30 million people in America alone. With lockdown, social distancing, poor health habits & environment these numbers are unfortunately only predicated to increase more and more...
I faced social anxiety my entire life and had to learn everything about it to climb out. Often social anxiety is camouflaged or disguised as being an introvert or being a good little shy person. This is a dangerous misconception because Harvard University did a meta-analysis study and found social anxiety is the most correlated with substance abuse, social isolation, and suicide.
Social anxiety is a mental health issue that has nothing to do with who you are as a person or your talents, many brilliant people face the same problem.
Social anxiety is a biochemical prison that keeps your brain & nervous system from being yourself in front of other people and takes down your sense of self-esteem and confidence.
It's a disease, not a personality type. The same way people have heart disease, social anxiety is an issue of the brain.
Many people don’t understand this and unfortunately spend their lives chasing proximate causes and surface-level solutions that don’t work long-term.
Luckily, there are so many things you can do:
- Focus on your Gut Microbiome & Neurotransmitters.
- Experiment with Mindfulness Meditation.
- Tackle it layer by layer with Exposure Therapy.
💬 have any questions or need help? Respond to this email directly.