Adapting to Post-Pandemic Reality When You Have Social Anxiety

With society reopening many people are experiencing worseningsocial anxiety, or in some cases, newfound social anxiety. Things most people used to do daily, such as carpooling, talking to strangers, making small talk with work colleagues, and seeing old friends, have become anxiety-provoking for some.

In fact, a 2021 study of 240 U.S. adults found that social anxiety symptoms significantly increased during the COVID shutdowns.你可能已经忘记了如何表现在人身边，感到焦虑how social patterns have shifted或者发现曾经轻松流动的对话现在耗尽。

Rather than facing your fears, the common advice for the past year has been to avoid the outside world, a behavior that can only serve to reinforce social anxiety.

在这些感觉过载和压力的这些感觉中，恢复日常生活中，你可能会想知道 - 我可以处理这个，或者更重要的是，我想处理我每天都在毫无麻烦的情况下管理的一切吗？

答案并不像你喜欢的那么简单，但它涉及很多应对策略，一种自我同情，以及你可能需要的认可professional helpif you were already struggling with social anxiety pre-pandemic and now it's gotten worse.

Impact of Existing Social Anxiety

If you were already living with social anxiety before the pandemic began, you might have welcomed the opportunity to hide away in a cocoon of privacy where you didn’t have any pressure to talk to strangers, attend social gatherings, or make small talk at the water cooler. You’re probably not in a hurry to get back to your old life and might be quite enjoying your safe haven.

In fact, the thought of returning to normal life might have you gripped in a state of panic and dread. If you’re among the roughly 12% of Americans diagnosed with social anxiety disorder,then your fears likely go beyond a bit of trepidation, nervousness, or awkwardness. Instead, you probably used to face debilitatinganxiety symptoms每当面对导致你恐惧的情况。

Now that vaccines are available and restrictions are being lifted, your anxiety has probably hit a point of being sky-high. Soon you will need to leave the comfort of your home and go back out into the world that always caused you so much anxiety and pain.

Impact of New Social Anxiety

If there was ever a time in history when social anxiety was a collective experience, we are currently living through this because of COVID-19. Rates of social anxiety disorder,学校拒绝， 和广播恐惧症can reasonably be expected to increase because of the simple fact that people have been isolated and have avoided social contact for so long.

已经遇到了一些社交焦虑的人可能会被推到需要专业帮助的地步，而在过去，他们可能会滑过或与他们认为是令人沮丧但可忍受的条件的影响。

The good news is that with these increasing numbers of cases of social anxiety will hopefully come a newfound understanding and respect for the plight of those who have always struggled with this affliction. For those who could never understandwhat it was like to live with social anxiety, they’ve been given a front-row ticket to a show they probably never wanted to see.

Social anxiety tends to live in the shadows, so this can only be a good thing as far as bringing this problem to light. Hopefully, along with increased cases, there will be more accessible solutions and options for treatment that don’t require you to do the thing that is causing you anxiety (speaking to people in general).

How to Face Society Again

While avoiding the situations that are causing you anxiety works for you in the short term, this actually maintains your anxiety over the long term. Instead, if you can gradually face those situations in small doses, your anxiety will not be as great, and you’ll be able to face more and more difficult tasks.

If you aren’t sure how to go about getting out into society again (when it’s safe), here are some tips to help:

• Make a point of leaving the house every day, even if it is only to go for a walk.
• Be the one in your household who goes out to get groceries.
• 去药房旅行，只是为了离开房子而不是使用送货服务。
• 在您实际上需要全职工作之前，开车到您的工作地点并走向一点，直到您开始感觉更舒服。
• 如果你在学校或有一个在学校的孩子，去学校走来走去，在第一天之前稍身感觉更舒服。
• Make a plan for how many social events you can tolerate in one day and then stick to that plan.
• Try to socialize in others ways if you still can’t leave the house, such as by talking on the phone, writing letters, using video calls, or sending emails to your loved ones or friends.

无论您需要做什么，何时才能沉浸在社会中，保持逐渐。从更简单的事情开始，并将您的方式达到更加困难的事情。

And remember to be empathetic to yourself if you feel anxious, but don’t let that stop you from taking the steps to stop avoiding the things that you need to do the most.

应对社会焦虑的策略

以下是一些提示，以帮助您是否正在经历新的社交焦虑，或者您已经处理了很长时间。

• Identify things that tend to trigger you and have a plan as to what you will do when that happens such as writing down your thoughts in a journal.
• 可视化一个平静的地方like the beach when you feel your worries running away from you.
• Practice deep breathing exercisesto help you feel less anxious, like the 4-7-8 breathing technique.
• Practice mindfulnessor meditation to get control of your anxiety.
• 用思想记录to keep track of your anxious thoughts and negative thinking patterns and try to turn those into positive coping statements.
• 参加在线瑜伽课，以减少你的焦虑，并且再次练习在一组中。
• 去冥想散步，感到不那么焦虑或清除你的思想。
• Write down everything that is worrying you and place it into a box so that you can stop thinking about it.
• 做事让自己舒缓，如观看有趣的节目或使用amental health app.
• 如果您有宠物，依靠他们为情感支持而帮助您，当您感到焦虑或焦虑的感情时。
• Write in agratitude journaleach day to remind yourself of what you have to be grateful for.

Therapy for Social Anxiety

If you were previously struggling with social anxiety, you may need to seek out professional help to deal with anxiety that has gotten worse. Seeing a therapist who offerscognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT),dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)或者其他支持性疗养焦虑疗法会有所帮助。

You could also consider joining a group therapy program to practice your social skills as you work on your social anxiety. While it might feel very hard to participate in therapy at the moment after being isolated for so long, it could be that your anxiety is to the point that you can’t manage it on your own anymore.

Practice Self Compassion

最重要的是，如果你在大流行后处理社交焦虑，重要的是要记住自我同情心是很重要的。以下是帮助您这样做的一些提示。

• 不要把自己逼去快;走在自己的pace when dealing with your social anxiety.
• Tell other people that you may need more time to do things that used to be easy for you.
• Understand that everyone will have a different comfort level and it is OK to set boundaries so people know where you stand.
• 如果导致你有很多压力，不要急于回归你的旧生活。相反，重新评估你旧生活中重要的东西以及你可能能够放弃（感觉更好）。

大流行担心增加社交焦虑

从“避免每个人”来“回到社交”可能很难翻转开关可能很难翻转。这可能尤其如此，因为疫苗推出，但不是每个人都尚未接种疫苗。你怎么知道如何表现别人？他们仍然是社交疏远还是想要你的握手？

Below are some tips to deal with this specific type of anxiety.

• If you aren’t yet comfortable with physical interaction, it’s OK to avoid hugs until you feel like it’s safer for you personally.
• If you have patterns that have become ingrained, such as crossing the street to get away from other people, work on slowly changing these patterns since it will be hard to think in a different way.
• Realize that safety and anxiety are two different things, and get clear with yourself about why you are avoiding. If it’s because of anxiety, then take efforts to challenge the fear instead of pretending that you are still keeping yourself safe from the pandemic.

Validating Your Emotions

当您准备重新进入世界时，您的工作场所，朋友集团或更广泛的社区，重要的是要记住，您现在的所有情绪都有效。无论您是在社会焦虑，不堪重负，压力还是绝望，你都不孤单，许多其他人都感受到同样的感受。

As you go about your business, feel free to share with others if you are feeling anxious or afraid. Don’t feel as though you have to keep everything inside, because for once there are others who are probably feeling the same way as you. Let it be awkward so that you can get it out in the open that you aren’t feeling that good about things. It might make it easier in the long run.

A Word From Verywell

Whether you already had social anxiety or this is a new experience for you,大流行后的生活将具有挑战性。然而，这并不意味着这是不可逾越的，让你恢复到一个对你有意义的生活。生活可能看起来不像过去一样，这并不一定是坏事。

Keep an open mind, allow yourself to be friendly (because others may be feeling the same as you), and do your best to get out for a little bit each day. Eventually, you should start to feel better about your circumstances and may not even remember the time when things were so hard.