How to Conquer Social Anxiety Disorder

Our company Christmas party took place a few weeks ago. I estimate that there were about 80-100 people there. Fortunately, my boss has a huge house so, although there was a large number in attendance, it wasnt crowded and you still had room to walk around.

The restaurant employs 14 people, including me, so you can assume that I didnt know everyone in attendance (ha). The rest of the party goers consisted of my co-workers spouses, my bosss family, and some of his close friends and neighbors. (more…)

The holiday season always provides ample opportunity to practice my social skills, and this year was no different.

In the past few weeks I have attended two such get-togethers and managed to test drive some of my new skills and experiment with some newly developed theories.

One of my goals this year was to let go of some of my inhibitions and allow myself to be less than perfect. I needed to be able to engage others in conversation without feeling that unnatural need to perform perfectly. This would be going against a 30 year old habit by the way. (more…)

As I already mentioned, my inability to communicate effectively with others in conversation is (was), in many ways, tied to my perfectionist traits. After analyzing my deepest fears, I eventually came to the conclusion that I could not tolerate partial success. I could not handle being a mediocre anything.
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