Writing to Cope
Feeling anxious from recent encounters, I tried something new the other night. Usually, I concentrate on reminding myself that the negative thoughts I have are learned and, most likely, inaccurate. This time I sat down with a laptop and tried to write out everything I was feeling.
I didn’t shy away from the negative. In fact, I indulged it. Usually, conscious of not wanting to seem to screwed up by anxiety, I try to appear, sound, and think of myself as reasonable. When I wrote, I decided I would write as unreasonably and unfairly and angrily as needed.
January 4th, 2007 by Aaron
Generalized Anxiety
I’ve been reading about Generalized Anxiety Disorder (found through the Social Anxiety Institute’s newsletter) and seeing how I have trouble with this as well as social anxiety. I’m not sure how the two interact. They seem similar. And if I dug in a bit, I bet a lot of the general anxiety I go through can be traced back to the fear of what various (sometimes very specific) people would think of me if they knew of my numerous failings.
December 28th, 2006 by Aaron
Anxious Writing
For the last few weeks I have been working on a writing project and going through the usual stresses this brings. When I work to get out a first draft, I put intense pressure on myself and create a lot emotional turmoil. I wind up miserable, longing for the later stages of the process. When the first draft is done, the fear of whether it will work at all is over and I can concentrate on refining my writing into something worthwhile. Before the first draft is done, it feels like the whole thing could go to pieces at any moment.
December 21st, 2006 by Aaron
Tonglen and SA
I wanted to share with you all a technique that I have found very helpful recently in dealing with social anxiety and our fears. The technique or practice is actually a type of meditation taught and practiced in Tibetan Buddhism. It is called tonglen. The word tonglen literally means “sending and taking” in Tibetan. Pema Chodron, a Buddhist nun, explains the practice as follows:
December 15th, 2006 by dashh
More Flow
A little more on flow, to follow up what I posted a couple weeks ago.
Finding Flow emphasizes the importance of where we place our psychic energy (of which we have limited amounts). The best way I can think to describe psychic energy is it is where we put our attention and how much energy we devote to that attention. One of the problems we encounter with social anxiety is that we invest a lot of psychic energy in examining our attitudes towards ourselves. There is so much concentration on the internal battle that we don’t have as much energy to take on the challenges of the life.
December 6th, 2006 by Aaron
Social Anxiety and Medication
I wanted to post on the topic of medication and social anxiety. I am seeing my therapist again after taking some months off from therapy and we are discussing medication. I have never tried any type of medication for my issues with social anxiety and depression in the past but I am now seriously considering it. It is not that I was against using meds in the past but more that I wanted to try other methods to see how much they could help me with these issues. I see meds as just another tool that I can add to my meditation, working out and psychotherapy to aid in dealing with these issues but also to better help me reach my potential in life. And, as I have read and my therapist confirmed, there is evidence that a combination of psychotherapy and medication has been more effective than using either alone (I believe these studies were on depression and relapse but will need to research the references.)
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December 1st, 2006 by dashh
A Moment at the Store
So this is about dissecting a moment of experience. A moment when social anxiety came into play and I dealt with it fairly well. A small moment to anyone watching. But a moment that reflects a lot of what I have been trying to write about here.
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November 30th, 2006 by Aaron
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