Archive for March, 2006
Embarrassing shyness
It is common knowledge that roughly 4-7 percent of the population suffer from social anxiety. If this figure is accurate, you would assume that this would be noticeable in public - but I’ve never been able to do this. Everyone looks perfectly normal. You don’t see 7% of the people in a mall, on a [...]
Faking confidence
When I started high school, I decided that I would become someone different. After all, no one knew me – our family just moved into the area – it was like wiping the slate clean and starting from scratch. I practiced all summer – things like positive self-talk, smiling, and acting more confident. I thought [...]
Setting the stage
Although my ultimate goal was to change my belief system (which seemed simple enough), actually implementing techniques to achieve the results I wanted, would be a little harder than I imagined.
I needed to attack the problem from several fronts at the same time if I was to be successful. I decided to define the ultimate [...]
The need for a manual system
So here was this massive, unstoppable, cycle of social anxiety. Where would I start – at what stage would my efforts be most effective?
I decided to interject at the moment of interpretation – micro seconds after the brain received external input. Any later than that, and it would have a chance to process the info [...]
Changing the social anxiety cycle
I was at a turning point unlike any I had experienced before. As with many previous “attempts”, It was exciting to dream about what the future held for me, but this time it was different. I finally figured something out – something real and tangible, that I could use to combat my social phobia. A [...]