We’re not getting enough sleep. Most of us are sleep deprived, and rarely, if ever, get a full night’s sleep more than one day in a row.
There are many issues that lead to these difficulties, and addressing them can take time as we determine why they’re occurring and work individually with how to solve them. Yet some of the potential causes of sleep difficulties, including racing thoughts, metal to due lists, and emotional residue from the day can interfere with the onset and quality of sleep.
Sleep hygiene practices are, at least theoretically, designed to address this. By giving yourself a habit/routine to help you fall asleep, you should be able to calm your mind and ease off easier than if you simply go straight to bed with your phone in your hands.
But, of course, sleep is more complicated than that, and there are plenty of times when our brains stay highly active and we have too much on our minds to relax.
Why the Brain Struggles to Transition to Sleep
Before examining journaling, it’s important to understand why sleep onset is disrupted. One of the most well-documented factors is heightened cognitive arousal – essentially, excessive mental activity in the pre-sleep period. This can include:
Persistent planning or problem-solving thoughts
Unresolved emotional tension from daytime experiences
Anticipatory anxiety about the following day
New ideas you want to remember or to-dos that you would like to prioritize
Research shows that these thought patterns correlate with activity in the default mode network (DMN), a neural system associated with self-referential thinking. High DMN activity at bedtime is associated with longer sleep onset latency and lighter sleep cycles.
Because journaling externalizes internal dialogue, it has the potential to reduce DMN activity and shift the brain toward a state more conducive to sleep.
The Power of Sleep Journaling
In these situations, you may want to consider keeping a sleep journal next to your bed.
Sleep journals are, essentially, journals where you can write down anything and everything that is on your mind when you are trying to go to sleep at night. It doesn’t necessarily matter what you write down, and you never need to force yourself to write down anything if you’re feeling tired (it differs from a gratitude journal in this way, as those types of journals are designed to be completed daily).
Rather, it’s a place for you to put your thoughts on paper in order to get them out of your head.
Journaling at night can reduce mental overactivity and create psychological closure that supports sleep onset. This practice is not simply about venting thoughts onto paper. The type of journaling, the structure, and even the timing all contribute to how journaling interacts with the brain’s sleep-regulating systems.
What Happens When You Journal Before Bed
Journaling operates at the intersection of cognitive restructuring and emotional regulation. Several peer-reviewed studies have found that the right form of journaling can measurably affect key variables tied to sleep, including sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep) and overall sleep quality. For example:
A 2018 study published in Journal of Experimental Psychology found that individuals who wrote out specific tasks they needed to complete the next day fell asleep significantly faster than those who journaled about completed tasks.
Another study published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine showed that expressive writing – where individuals write about their thoughts and feelings – reduced symptoms of sleep-onset insomnia in people with anxiety.
Keep in mind these are examples of *different* benefits. The first study looked at something called “cognitive offloading” where moving thoughts out of your mind (your working memory) and onto paper basically tells your brain “don’t worry, you can’t forget, it’s written down on paper” which frees up additional resources and helps the brain disengage from active processing.
The second study showed that writing out our emotions and feelings is a form of processing. Anxieties and stresses often occur when emotions feel unresolved, or when they’re bouncing around in mind without being fully processed. Writing out these emotions help us process them, allowing us to have some closure and, eventually, sleep.
Remember, these thoughts may not all be stressful. Imagine you’re someone that loves writing, and – when you’re supposed to go to sleep – you have this great idea for a story. Your mind can’t relax if you’re worried that you may forget the idea. If you write it down, your brain knows you can’t forget it, and you can hopefully relax better and ease yourself into sleep.
Addressing Sleep for Mental Health
Sleep may not be directly responsible for the entirety of our mental health, but it becomes extraordinarily difficult to cope with stress and address our psychological challenges if we’re not also prioritizing sleep. Journaling may not solve all your issues, but if an active mind is keeping you awake, consider taking out a journal and testing out those benefits.
In the mental health world, the term “obsessions” has a very different meaning than it does in casual conversation. In casual conversation, “obsessions” are things you want or desire. They’re things you’re happy to think about often, or things that you like to do.
In the mental health world, “obsessions” are very different. They are typically thoughts that you *do not want* that “intrude” your mind over and over again. Most of the time, these thoughts also cause distress, as they’re often on topics and subjects that a person finds upsetting.
One of the challenges of obtrusive thoughts is how hard they are to control. The more you try to push them away, the more they come back. This is actually by design. Our brain is, in some ways, specifically designed to make sure that the more you try to stop a thought, the more often the thought will occur.
Why Can’t We Stop Intrusive Thoughts?
Psychological studies have shown that it takes a lot of mental energy to avoid thinking about something. So much energy, in fact, that your brain needs to remind you of it in order to remember not to think about it. There are different terms for this, but one of the most popular is called the “Pink Elephant Problem.”
What is the Pink Elephant Problem?
The Pink Elephant Problem is a study that shows that if you tell half a group of people to think about a pink elephant, and half a group of people not to think about a pink elephant, the group told not to think about it ends up thinking about it more than the other group. It takes so much energy to avoid thinking about a topic, that you end up thinking about it more.
What Does the Pink Elephant Problem Have to Do With OCD?
Imagine you have an intrusive thought that causes you distress. Because it causes you so much stress and anxiety, you try to push it away. You try your best not to think about it. Suddenly, you’re running into the pink elephant problem. Your brain spends so much energy trying not to think about it that it ends up thinking about it more and more often.
How Do You Break This Cycle?
Part of overcoming these intrusive thoughts is breaking this cycle and making it so that you *can* forget. To do that, you have to actually embrace the thought. Remind yourself that your intrusive thoughts do not define you. Remind yourself that pushing the thought away does not work. You may even want to think about the thought on purpose in order to make it something that you no longer obsess on.
Is That All There is To It?
No, addressing OCD does take a lot more energy and effort. You may have to address the initial causes of the obsessions, the compulsions, what causes you the most distress, and even forgiving yourself for your thoughts. Those all take time and energy, and benefit from working with a therapist.
But if you stop attempting to push down those thoughts, accept that you have them, and focus on moving forward, then the thoughts not only should occur less – they should also cause less distress when they do occur.
Ready for OCD Help?
If you are someone that struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder or intrusive thoughts, reach out to a therapist today. Through therapy, you can gain more understanding of the cause of these thoughts and develop cognitive tools to help you control them. Contact us today to learn more.
We talk about anxiety as though it is always a debilitating disorder – one that people struggle with *immensely*. Certainly, some people do have anxiety that makes it difficult to function, unable to leave the house or experience a happy and productive life.
But for others, anxiety is not a debilitating condition. It is a manageable one. Their anxiety affects their life, but it doesn’t control them, and so a person with anxiety can still manage relationships, work, parent, and perform normal tasks.
The thing is, that itself can be a problem.
When a person has this type of anxiety, they may be hesitant to treat it. Why see a therapist when you are still married, or you still work, or you have friends that you see regularly?
Yet, we know a few things to be true:
Everyone deserves to live their best, happiest life, and that is often not possible when a person has anxiety.
Someone that has more manageable anxiety now may not have manageable anxiety later. Untreated anxiety is at risk for getting worse over time.
Anxiety may seem manageable because your life seems normal, but if you didn’t have anxiety, your life would be very different.
Individuals with this type of anxiety are sometimes referred to as having “high functioning” anxiety or being “high functioning.”
High functioning anxiety is not a clinical diagnosis, but rather a term used to describe individuals who appear outwardly successful, organized, and composed, while internally experiencing persistent worry, self-doubt, and emotional distress. These individuals often meet personal, academic, or professional expectations while privately struggling with anxiety symptoms that are either unrecognized or dismissed due to their high level of daily functioning.
This form of anxiety can be difficult to detect because it doesn’t disrupt responsibilities in obvious ways. In fact, it can drive people to be more detail-oriented, more dependable, or more productive. But beneath the surface, the emotional toll can be significant.
How High Functioning Anxiety Differs from Other Anxiety Presentations
Typically, a person that is high functioning with anxiety are still touched by the condition. Generalized anxiety disorder, for example, causes people to feel anxious more generally, without necessary a specific fear or issue. At work, they may feel anxious about meetings, but they’re still *at work* and doing their job, and to others they may just appear a bit more shy, or their heartbeat goes up a lot but they are otherwise able to manage their experiences. When dating, they may have more fears about “screwing up” a date, but they may otherwise be able to go on dates and just feel high stress and high anxiety throughout the time – possibly overthinking later.
Yet even though they’re functioning, they’re still being affected by their anxiety. They may, for example, be less likely to ask for a raise at work. Or they may be less likely to act confident on a date. Or they may be overly worried about their child running into a street. Their anxiety still touches everything they do in some form.
Compensatory Behaviors
Some people with high functioning anxiety go a step further. Unlike generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which may interfere visibly with day-to-day functioning, high functioning anxiety may be marked by compensatory behaviors that mask internal distress. People with high functioning anxiety may manage their anxiety through over-preparation, perfectionism, and rigid routines – behaviors that may be socially rewarded but are mentally and emotionally draining.
They are often described as:
Responsible
Ambitious
Reliable
Detail-focused
Self-motivated
But internally, they may also feel:
Constantly worried or tense
Afraid of failure or disapproval
Overwhelmed by routine decisions
Exhausted from overthinking or over-planning
Anxious even during rest or downtime
While the outward appearance may suggest control and capability, internal symptoms often include:
Racing thoughts or chronic overthinking
Difficulty relaxing or feeling “off duty”
Irritability or restlessness, especially when unproductive
Fear of disappointing others or being judged
Over-scheduling or trouble saying no to requests
Perfectionism and fear of making mistakes
Sleep disturbances, especially trouble falling asleep due to mental activity
Physical symptoms such as muscle tension, headaches, or gastrointestinal discomfort
These symptoms may not be severe enough to stop the person from functioning, but they can contribute to long-term stress, burnout, or emotional fatigue.
Why It Often Goes Unnoticed
High functioning anxiety often goes unrecognized for several reasons:
The behaviors it drives – such as punctuality, attention to detail, and overachievement – are socially reinforced.
The person may not describe their experience as “anxiety” because they are not having panic attacks or visibly falling apart.
Friends, family, and coworkers may see them as capable or calm, unaware of the internal pressure they are constantly managing.
In many cases, individuals don’t seek help because they believe their anxiety is simply part of their personality. They’re used to it. And because their life feels fairly normal, at least in the eyes of society, then they do not feel like they are in need of additional help.
Risks of Leaving High Functioning Anxiety Unaddressed
When high functioning anxiety goes unrecognized or untreated, it can lead to long-term complications such as:
Chronic stress or burnout
Increased risk of depression
Relationship strain due to emotional unavailability or irritability
Avoidance of rest or difficulty enjoying downtime
Difficulty adjusting to failure, change, or reduced productivity
Even if your anxiety feels manageable, it does not need to be. Your life will often feel more fulfilling and energizing when your anxiety is under control.
Treatment and Support
Even when anxiety does not appear to interfere with work or responsibilities, it is still valid and treatable. High functioning anxiety responds well to several approaches:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to challenge perfectionistic or anxious thought patterns
Mindfulness-based practices to promote rest and present-moment awareness
Behavioral techniques to reduce compulsive planning or avoidance
Medication in some cases, for generalized symptoms that don’t respond to therapy alone
Stress reduction strategies to support sustainable routines without over-reliance on anxiety as a motivator
Support from a therapist can help individuals develop healthier ways to manage pressure without sacrificing well-being.
Get Therapy for Anxiety Today
Having high functioning anxiety means living with a constant undercurrent of fear or worry, even when everything appears to be in order. It often looks like success from the outside but feels like survival on the inside.
Awareness is the first step toward change. With the right support, individuals can learn to function not from fear, but from a place of clarity and balance – still achieving, but with far less cost to their emotional and physical health.
For more information, reach out to Flourish Psychology, today.
Anxiety is often self-sustaining. When a person struggles with anxiety, they often have symptoms and experiences that can create more anxiety.
Although uncommon, one issue that is especially prone to creating more anxiety in anxiety-prone individuals is the presence of what are often called “hallucinations” – experiencing sights or sounds that are not actually there, that no one else can see or hear.
Hallucinations are more common in those with panic attacks and PTSD, but can affect anyone with any anxiety or stress disorder. They’re also a trigger for more anxiety, because a person that experiences a hallucination often finds that they experience either fear of the hallucination, or fear of what the hallucination means about their mental health.
But before we begin talking about anxiety-related hallucinations, it’s important to make clear that these are *not* true hallucinations. While many people experience a perception of hallucinations with anxiety, they’re not an altered reality. They’re not psychosis. Instead, they’re just a way our brain is responding to things (stimuli) that are happening around us, as well as our anxiety itself.
Who We Are – Flourish Psychology
Flourish Psychology is a New York City based boutique private practice that treats patients struggling with anxiety and anxiety related symptoms. We consider ourselves to be a partner in our mental health, with a team of amazing therapists that are here to help you with your needs. Please reach out today for more information, or to schedule an appointment.
What Causes These “Hallucinations?”
Anxiety related hallucinations are not necessary hallucinations, at least not the same way that psychosis can cause hallucinations. Instead, they’re perception issues caused by the mind and how it is processing information, as well as symptoms of anxiety that are being misinterpreted by our anxiety.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s not worrisome when you experience it. These symptoms are common, and can be caused by issues such as:
Hypervigilance and Sensory Overload – Anxiety heightens your awareness of potential threats. This hypervigilant state can increase sensitivity to sound and sight, and create the illusion of auditory/visual input. In overstimulated environments, the brain may try to “fill in” missing sensory information, sometimes resulting in the perception of non-existent sounds.
Stress-Induced Cognitive Distortion – Prolonged stress can impair the brain’s ability to differentiate between internal thoughts and external sounds. An anxious mind may interpret internal self-talk or intrusive thoughts as external voices, or may see unexpected movements or shadows as signs of danger.
Sleep Disruption and Fatigue – Chronic anxiety often interferes with sleep. Severe sleep deprivation is known to cause perceptual disturbances, including visual and auditory issues, as well as make it much harder to calm an anxious mind and process various senses.
Intrusive Thoughts with Sensory Characteristics – Some individuals with anxiety disorders experience intrusive thoughts that are vivid and have sensory qualities. These may be misperceived as external voices, especially during panic episodes or emotional distress.
Anxiety Symptoms – Anxiety itself causes symptoms that can appear at first glance to be a hallucination. For example, it may cause changes to light perception, or buzzing in the ear. These can then be misinterpreted by the person’s anxious mind.
These are only a few of the examples of ways that anxiety can create a perception that there are hallucinations, despite no hallucinations taking place. Anxiety also makes a person more likely to worry about their mental health, increasing the risk further.
Types of Anxiety Hallucinations
Hallucinations can affect all of our senses, but are most likely to be auditory or visual. Examples of these hallucinations include the following, though this is not a comprehensive list.
Auditory Hallucinations
Most “hallucinations” from anxiety are going to be auditory (related to hearing). That is because, as we discussed earlier, most hallucinations are not true hallucinations but rather ways that our brain is perceiving other sounds and stimuli, and our ears are far more likely to be responsible for picking up “extra” information that we’re not otherwise paying attention to.
You can think of it like this: when you’re looking at an object, you know exactly what the object is, you can see it, and you’re focused on it. It’s in front of you.
But sounds can come from any direction. They can be loud or quiet. They can be unexpected, and they can’t be turned off when we’re not paying attention (we can’t close our ears and it goes away). This is why we are likely to be more prone to auditory hallucinations. For example:
Name – We may hear someone calling their name when no one is there, or hear our name being talked about within a crowd when it was not actually said.
Background Noise – We may perceive faint music, buzzing, or whispers.
Weird Noises – We may experience distorted or exaggerated environmental sounds.
Self-Talk – We may hear internal dialogue that feels louder or more intrusive than usual.
One weird auditory hallucination that we have yet to find the cause of is people that complain they hear a loud pop or bang. This is more common in those that have panic disorder. It’s not entirely clear what causes this noise. It may be that a slightly quieter banging noise is made loud by our sensitivity to anxious noises. But it does seem to be an experience that many share.
These experiences often occur during panic attacks, periods of severe stress, or chronic sleep deprivation, all common features of anxiety disorders. They may also occur for seemingly no reason at all in someone that has anxiety, because anxiety is more likely to cause sensitivity to anxiety-producing sounds.
Visual Hallucinations
Visual hallucinations are less common with anxiety, but can still occur. When they do, they’re not that different from auditory hallucinations, in that they’re more likely to be misinterpretations of more common visual experiences, or issues caused by anxiety itself.
For example, anxiety causes the pupils to dilate, which brings in more light. It can also causes “tunnel vision,” which is where you’re able to see better directly in front of you while the sides of your vision may appear blurry or checkered. Like with auditory hallucinations, a person may also overreact to visual stimuli. Examples of these visual hallucinations include:
Fleeting shadows or flashes of light
Movement in the peripheral vision with no identifiable source
Visual static or “visual snow” during panic or hyperventilation
Seeing patterns, blurs, or spots that resolve quickly
Perceiving shapes or outlines that disappear upon closer inspection
As you can see, many of these are related to your eyes letting in more light. Hyperventilation can also affect your vision, and people with anxiety are prone to eye pain/discomfort, eye tiredness, and more.
Anxiety is also going to cause people to be more fearful of what they see, and possibly interpret it as dangerous. A tiny unexpected shadow may appear to be a person to someone with anxiety, and their imagination can make them feel like a person is hiding near them, leading to more anxiety symptoms.
All of these are examples of how a person might experience what feels like a “visual hallucination” but is instead just anxiety leading to misinterpretation of normal visual experiences.
Other Hallucinations Caused by Anxiety
Most of our “hallucinations” are going to come from our eyes and ears. But we might also experience what we think are hallucinations caused by other senses. For example:
Unexplained Smells – Anxiety can heighten our senses and make us more sensitive to different smells. This means that not only might we smell things that others cannot, but also we may interpret those things as unpleasant or scary because of our anxiety.
Weird Sensations – Anxiety, panic attacks, and related symptoms like hyperventilation, can cause a person to experience a combination of hypersensitivity and “Self monitoring.” This is where they are subconsciously scanning their bodies for weird feelings, and then experiencing those feelings stronger than a person might otherwise. This can make it feel as though you’re hallucinating a touch or other feeling.
Odd Tastes – This may not be so much a hallucination, but a symptom of anxiety. Many people experience a change in their taste buds with anxiety, with bad tastes or metallic tastes that show up while eating or while nothing is in your mouth at all.
These are other examples of issues that may be viewed as “hallucinations” in some form, but are otherwise normal.
Difference Between Anxiety Hallucinations and Psychosis
When a person experiences these types of strange hallucinations, one of their biggest fears it that they’re experiencing a form of psychosis. That fear itself can also cause more anxiety. Luckily, there are many ways to tell that this is anxiety and not another mental health issue.
The biggest tell is that you’re aware of it – that you have the concept that what you’re seeing isn’t real. Someone with psychosis typically believes that what they’re seeing and feeling is real, and so the very act of questioning whether or not you’re truly hallucinating is itself a sign that you are not. Other examples include:
Content – Anxiety-related disturbances are often vague or brief (e.g., hearing one’s name called), and may not include ongoing complex or commanding voices.
Frequency – Anxiety-induced hallucinations tend to be less common, and not part of a persistent pattern of sensory disruption.
Anxiety-Triggers – Anxiety-related hallucinations tend to trigger anxiety as they occur, or happen during periods of anxiety. Psychosis related hallucinations rarely trigger anxiety unless the content of the hallucination is specifically frightening, in which case it’s because the person is perceiving it as real.
Only a therapist or doctor can truly identify what is anxiety and what is psychosis, but most individuals that struggle with psychosis are unaware of it, and are not experiencing anxiety in the same way as someone with an anxiety disorder.
What Happens Next?
If you’re experiencing anxiety-related hallucinations, it’s almost always a sign that your anxiety has become difficult to manage. Whether it’s panic attacks, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or something else, feeling like you might be hallucinating is a sign that your anxiety is in need of professional support.
Here at Flourish Psychology, we provide mental health treatment in New York for those that are looking for help with their anxiety or other mental health issues. We can teach you skills to help you manage your anxiety, and train your mind to experience less fear if and when you do have these manifestations.
For more information, or to get started, please reach out to Flourish Psychology, today.
Anxiety is a mental health disorder. But it also causes a wide range of physical symptoms. Most of us have an understanding that when we’re anxious, we expect to feel sweaty, have a rapid heartbeat, feel light headed, and more. If you have panic attacks, this is even more pronounced, with chest pains, muscle weakness, and a wide variety of other symptoms.
Many of these symptoms, specially for those that have anxiety attacks, are caused not directly by anxiety itself but by the hyperventilation that anxiety triggers. Anxiety makes you breathe faster. As you breathe faster and more shallow (meaning, less full breaths). Typically, you breathe in, your body takes the oxygen and starts converting it to carbon dioxide, and then you expel it.
But when you hyperventilate, this causes you to expel more CO2 before your body has a chance to create more of it. Your body needs CO2 to operate efficiently, and when it doesn’t have that, your heart beats harder, you feel more lightheaded, and your anxiety symptoms get significantly worse.
Now, the most important takeaway of this is that the primary cause is too much oxygen and too little carbon dioxide, because your body isn’t creating it fast enough to account for how quickly you’re breathing it out.
But hyperventilation also causes one confusing symptom that can make anxiety much worse.
It also causes a feeling as though you’re not getting enough *oxygen*.
When you hyperventilate, you feel like you’re not breathing enough – like you’re not getting enough air. As a result, you either breathe faster or try to breathe bigger (like yawning) to try to get more oxygen in your system.
The result?
You make hyperventilation worse, which in turn makes your anxiety symptoms worse. One of the reasons that panic attacks can be so severe is that, during the attack, a person is typically trying as hard as they can to get more air all while they need to try to make more carbon dioxide. The symptoms get progressively more severe until they peak.
How to Address This Confusing Symptom
Psychotherapy is the best way to address anxiety and panic disorder, but a part of the psychotherapy process is education. The more you know and understand about panic disorder and its symptoms, the easier it becomes to try to prevent more significant attacks.
This is why part of treatment is education, and in this case, educating you specifically on this symptom – the idea that you are going to need to fight the urge to take deeper breaths, and instead remember to slow down your breathing (and even hold your breath!) could help reduce the severity of your symptoms dramatically.
Now, slowing down your breathing is unlikely to stop a panic attack that has already started. But the less severe your symptoms, the easier it becomes to feel emboldened to treat your panic attacks and anxiety. At Flourish Psychology, we want to be there for those that are struggling and help them with the next steps of bringing their anxiety under control. If you need help for yourself or a loved one, please reach out to our team, today.
Human beings are social animals. We need and crave connection with others, and benefit from feeling this connection on a deep level. It’s known in the world of psychology as “social support,” and it’s directly connected to us living longer and happier lives. The simple act of feeling closely connected to others can add years to your lifespan.
That social support can also be a tool that can be used to address psychological challenges, including some that are directly connected to the development of social support, such as social anxiety. As a result, it can be useful for people struggling with anxiety to deeply embrace their friendships, and use that as a way to help them overcome their mental health issues.
NOTE: Of course, one of the challenges of having social anxiety is that it can make it difficult to find and maintain friendships. We’ll address that later. But many people with social anxiety do have *some* friends, maybe one or two. We’re going to talk more about the benefits of maintaining those friendships, before discussing alternative steps.
About Friends and Confidence
One of the most powerful tools that we have to feel more confident around others is a deeper feeling of friendship with the individuals that are currently with us.
When we feel as though we have a few very deep, fulfilling, arguably unbreakable friendships, we tend to experience:
Less concern about the opinion of others. When we have issues like social anxiety and public speaking anxiety, we have a tendency to worry about what strangers think and that it might affect our social standing. But if we feel much more confident that we have deep friendships waiting for us, the anxiety that any mistakes will hurt us goes down.
More confident in ourselves. Many studies have shown that we have much more confidence when we have friendships that are truly fulfilling, and that confidence can and will seep into our components of our life, including how we interact with others.
Further social experiences in a stress free setting. It can be hard to talk to strangers. It can be hard to be in crowds. But social experiences are still social experiences. When you have some deep friendships that are really fulfilling, you are less likely to feel concerned about speaking to those individuals. As a result, you have more conversations, learn more social skills, and learn more about yourself – all of which are beneficial for addressing anxiety in other ways.
It gives you people that can introduce you to others and support you while you’re there. Social experiences beget more social experiences. You are more likely to meet more people through your friendships, and also have someone that can go with you to social events to help ease your anxiety while you’re there.
Sometimes, too, when we feel a lot of social anxiety a part of us actually separates ourselves from our close friends because we desire the experience of not having anxiety and of socializing with new people. In a way, it’s as though our anxiety makes us want what we are struggling to have.
But you may want to consider re-embracing those close friendships and building on them. The effects that it can have on your social anxiety – and your personal life – can be fairly pronounced. If you’re looking for something you can do to feel less anxious with public speaking and in social settings, reconnecting and building on your existing friendships can help.
Of course, for some people their anxiety is so severe, they struggle to have these friendships, or they often rethink them and worry that their friends may not truly like them. In these situations, you can try a few things.
First, voice your experience with those friends. Let them know, calmly when you’re not feeling high emotion, that you struggle with this and you are working on it, and want to know if they’re willing to work with you as well. Sometimes that reassurance can be of big benefit. In addition, there are many groups that exist to help you find individual friendships in a less tense setting. Trying to connect with smaller groups can be a good step towards addressing this anxiousness.
Of course, you may find that you still struggle – either you still have social anxiety despite deep friendships with others, or your anxiety is so strong you are struggling to make deep friendships at all. In those types of situations, reaching out to a therapist can help. Find out more about our therapy and mental health services for anxiety at Flourish Psychology.
Location: 300 Cadman Plaza West Floor 12 - Brooklyn, NY 11201
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