Archive for July, 2006
Social Anxiety and self-awareness
The hardest part about giving that extra little push in social situations was that I would have to constantly think about it. If I became distracted or lost concentration, my good old auto-responses would take over and I would revert back to my shy, quiet and very comfortable self – All without being aware of [...]
Pushing past the comfort zone
The technique that allowed me to take that leap of faith was very low-key and subtle. After all, I was still operating in the incubation stage and I had to strike a balance between too much and not enough. If my attempts were too weak, then nothing would happen – if I pushed too far, [...]
Change is possible - it’s just a lot of work!
At 34 years old, I often wondered if I was too old to change who I was and re-write my core beliefs. As a child, could I have been trained to adopt a different way of thinking, and under ideal circumstances, have avoided this condition all together? Maybe, though I am still convinced that genetics [...]
An unpredictable society
In a perfect world I would have been able to slowly and steadily see improvement in my quest for “social normality.” After all, I had a workable plan, a set of goals, and many techniques that I could deploy depending on the circumstances (many of which I still have to write about). Yes, in an [...]
A new look at the real world
Swimming with the sharks was quite an experience. With my new and improved smile, and the fact that I wasn’t always staring at the ground, I almost felt like one of them – almost that is.
In reality, I was scared beyond belief. Although I looked like one of them, I felt like my old [...]
Walking straight and looking around - Part 5
Confident that I had conquered the physical dependency of needing to stare at the ground as I walked, I decided that there was no time like the present to take it to the street and see what happened.
I started out at my usual walking trail in the park, except that this time it was around [...]
Walking straight and looking around - Part 4
Learning how to walk again was a challenge. It felt extremely uncomfortable and unnatural to be walking with my back straight and my head up. I spent a great deal of time practicing in the park, hoping no one would see me.
I started out by simply straightening my body and looking ahead towards the horizon. [...]
Walking straight and looking around - Part 3
So it seemed that my “staring at the ground” problem was a little more serious than I thought. I always assumed that it was only triggered by social encounters, but it was clear that it had become a little more than that.
Looking away from people, ignoring my surroundings, and staring at the ground was caused [...]
Walking straight and looking around - Part 2
The ability to walk straight and actually look at the world around me has been one of the biggest breakthroughs in my fight against social anxiety disorder (that’s why I intend to write a lot more on this subject). This changed the way I perceived people and society - and ultimately changed the way I [...]
Walking straight and looking around - part 1
Breaking down the different components of my comfort zone was fairly straight forward. I knew which automatic responses took over in any given social situation, although I never really gave them much thought. There was one, however, that stood out above all the rest.