Faulty Coping Strategies for Social Anxiety

Faulty coping strategies are harmful methods often used to handle social anxiety and its symptoms. These methods are harmful because:

• They will prevent overcoming social anxiety
• They can creat additional problems such as depression, panic attacks, and agoraphobia.

Faulty coping strategies can be very obvious, and some can be very subtle. It is very important to learn any faulty coping strategies you may use. They must be changed in order to be successful in overcoming social anxiety.

Avoidance

This is the most common, yet most damaging way to cope with social anxiety. It is very easy to avoid social situations which produce fear and anxiety.

Other than the obvious ways of avoiding social situations, like declining invitations, there are subtle ways to avoid as well, so you may not even be aware of them.

You may think avoidance doesn’t pertain to you, because you usually accept invitations to social events. That is great, unless you do any of the following:

• Sit in a corner by yourself so you are less apt to have to talk to people.
• You have a drink or two before going, to calm yourself.
• Staying only a short time before you feel the need to leave.
• Not making eye contact, or excusing yourself abruptly from a conversation.
• Daydreaming
• Never going anywhere alone.

These methods of partially avoiding are just as disabling as completely avoiding social situations. They are only prolonging the thoughts, beliefs, and fears that you have in social situations.