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when I read about social anxiety, I can pretty much identify with all the symptoms. The usual remedies don't work on me. Talking to a therapist does not work on me. cognitive behavioral therapy does not work on me. taking acting classes does not work on me.
Now I will describe something amazing that's worked on me in overcoming my fear of dogs and I am hoping you can draw a parallel.
I used to have a phobia of dogs, so much that I couldn't be around a little yorkie. Then I started volunteering at the hospital, and going to the operating room. I saw a lot of nasty things there. Immediately, my fear of dogs was gone. I did not make an active effort to make the fear go away. In fact, I was not even aware that it was going away. It was not gradual. one day it was gone, just like that. Someone gave me this outlandish explanation that makes sense: We have different levels of fear. My fear of dogs was ULTIMATELY due to my fear of death. because I faced death-related situations, it got rid of my fear of dogs.
Now can you draw a parallel in terms of shyness? what is the ULTIMATE reason for shyness? can you come up with some outlandish explanation like above? If I could face that ultimate reason that's causing my shyness, I could get rid of it, just like in the scenario above.
When in a social situation, ask yourself:
What Is The Worst That Could Happen?