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January 30, 2006
A Collection of Links
http://www.awarenessequalspower.com/safeplace/mydress.html
"My Gossamer Dress" is beautiful essay on social anxiety. I don't relate to a lot of this myself, but I still really like the piece.
http://www.socialanxietyassist.com.au
A link that was emailed to me which has a lot of good information it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/magazine/15japanese.html
An article in the New York Times about hikikomori "which translates as 'withdrawal' and refers to a person sequestered in his room for six months or longer with no social life beyond his home."
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/33/1728_81073.htm
Information on essential tremors. Since my hands can shake even when I'm not anxious, I feel like I have a slight version of this which I magnify when I focus on it. "Social phobia, or fear of public situations, affects up to one-third of patients with essential tremor."
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/20/1728_51228.htm
Another interesting WebMD article which says "Focusing on improving interpersonal relationships, such as those with relatives and friends, could improve symptoms of social phobia, according to early results from a small study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry."
Posted by successfullyshy at 11:08 PM
January 9, 2006
What It Comes Down To
What it comes down to for me:
think lips are shaking
feel lips shaking
always think eyes are red
get scared of eye contact
muscles tense up
think others are can see all or some of the above
think I'm not worthy
think others are thinking bad things about me
try to get out of the situation
talk to myself afterwards
think about everything that happened afterwards
call myself dumb and that I hate myself afterwards
Posted by successfullyshy at 10:52 PM
January 5, 2006
Painfully Shy
I read a book over the holidays that I can't recommend enough: Painfully Shy by Barbara G. Markway and Gregory P. Markway. Parts of the book were well-known to me, but much of it was new and enlightening. I've dog-eared many of the pages and underlined many passages. I don't want to sound like I'm hawking the book, but it had so much good information, was so uplifting that I wish I would have started with it. I highly recommend the book to anybody coming to this site and looking for good starting places, as I have been looking for.
Posted by successfullyshy at 10:51 PM