Social Shyness: Overcoming Shyness

Depression is the reaction to having lost something that was considered important. The roots lie in the past. For example, you can lose someone you love deeply and that can produce depression. On the other hand, if you lost ten cents and that was all the money you had in the world, that can equally produce depression.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is a fear of the future, whether known or unknown. For example, awakening in the morning and feeling fear in the pit of your stomach and yet having no idea why. Or, it could be a feeling of fear prior to making a speech to a small group of family members at a dinner party. Either way, that is anxiety.

The Symptoms:

Depression manifests itself as a lack interest in life itself, pessimism and a belief that the future holds nothing of value. Note, in true depression, fear of the future is not present, but on some occasions a depressed person will become anxious and become afraid of the unknown future.

The body slows down and certain chemicals are released. Similar chemicals (endorphins) are released when a patient relaxes deeply, for example whilst under hypnosis. As a world-wide teacher of Hypnotherapy, I always stress in my hypnotherapy training that ‘depression is a contra-indication’ to the use of hypnosis.

Should you use hypnosis with a depressed patient, you may deepen the state of depression even further because of the increased release of endorphins.

Of course, using hypnosis with a client who is suffering from anxiety is to be applauded as an induced relaxed state removes the anxiety and allows a non-critical analysis of the reason for the illness.

The Treatment:

People suffering from anxiety should always be taught a relaxation technique to allow the body to get back to normal as anxiety cannot be felt when the mind and body are relaxed.

In both cases, it is absolutely essential that the reasons for depression or anxiety is understood. With depression the sufferer almost always knows what causes it. With anxiety, if it is considered a problem, the cause is often unknown.

However, with analysis, either through a non-relaxation method such as imagery techniques for depression, or through relaxation techniques for anxiety, the sufferer can be taught to handle the situation in a more beneficial way.

Here are two examples.

With depression, a knowledge of the stages a depressive will experience as the depression takes hold, helps a sufferer to understand what is happening to him or her. This can help to get through the time it takes for the depression to ‘blow itself out’ as in the vast majority of cases, ‘time heals’.

Of course, there are other forms of depression that do not pass in time. A ‘manic depressive’ will vouch for that and the only obvious recourse is to take prescribed drugs and enter in to a long term of therapy. But, if you are suffering from depression as you read this, please remember that these are exceptional cases as the majority of depressed people get well with the passing of time.

Prescribed drugs for either depression or anxiety, must only be taken on a temporary basis as a sufferer can become dependant on them.

The treatment for anxiety are twofold. If the cause is known, for example feeling afraid of flying, then techniques can be taught that will enable you to relax (remember what I said about being unable to feel anxiety when relaxed?) in the situation that causes you the anxiety.

If the cause is unknown, recourse to some form of psychological treatment may be necessary. This would inevitably be in the form of analysing the problem and then learning how to deal with the anxiety.

You Are Not Alone:

In both cases, sufferers are not alone as almost everyone will at some time in their lives suffer with either depression or anxiety, or even both.

The depth of the depression or degree of anxiety depends on individual circumstances and a sufferer’s personality.

Unfortunately, those of us who are sensitive and caring suffer the most but there is always help on hand.

You may have found ways over the years to reduce your anxiety but the shyness and avoidance tendencies remained.  So in reality you feel like you have not made any progress.  In essence, you are dealing with three separate entities – shyness, anxiety and behaviours and each needs its own management system.  The confidence that comes from managing all three creates its own momentum but until that point, it feels like you are taking 3 steps forward and 5 back.  If we look at them in turn we can see they come from different points in the body – anxiety is the body’s response to a stress trigger, shyness is really about how you feel about yourself and being in the company of others and the avoidance techniques are automatic responses that the subconscious mind feels are for your benefit. 

The power control for shyness and avoidance behaviours is in the subconscious mind and it makes sense that the subconscious mind must be used to make these changes lifelong.  You know that being logical makes no difference long-term because the root of the problem is in the subconscious mind.  So how do you access the subconscious – through hypnosis.  Hypnosis is a concentrated relaxation (the concentration is the change you want to make). 

In our waking state, the beta state, the conscious mind is on guard, filtering, hearing and seeing what it wants to see and hear and disregarding anything else.  As the body relaxes you move into the alpha state which is a consciousness of what is going (rather than the conscious part of the mind) – you can go through the memories and feelings attached to past events and review them in an objective sense and with your adult’s self now determine whether they warrant the control that you have allowed them to have.  You are removing the emotional attachment from these memories.  As you move into theta, the creative part, the imaginative part of the brain waves, you can see how you want to be now, how you would feel not being social anxious, the positive difference it would make to your life.  Also you are aware of any fear of changing that is present and analyze this fear’s concerns.  Then with delta these changes are being absorbed into the deep recesses of the subconscious mind.  You have to bring all the sense into play, you have to make it real.  The subconscious mind does not know the difference between what is real or imagined so this is used for you to rehearse how you want things to be – a comfortable you, feeling relaxed in company.  In this way, we are changing the avoidance behaviours.  Accepting yourself for as you are and knowing that you are entitled to take up space on this world and be counted.  Making the improvements you need to make, being less self conscious and embracing life.  But you have to want to change, you have to make the decision to embrace change so that you can be relaxed in the company of others, no matter what goes on.  It doesn’t matter what anyone says or does to you, it is only your response that gives it worth.

You can stop panic attacks using self-hypnosis. This anti-anxiety approach is a process that is very effective because it works on your subconscious mind. If you want to quit worrying about having a crash of anxiety then you can benefit from using hypnosis.

Subconscious Anxiety

The subconscious mind is a vast resource for you to enjoy. This is the place of daydreams, motivation and habits. You can tap directly into this resource through self-hypnosis. This is an effective approach because you are dealing with your stress, worry and anxiety directly and this is important when you want to inhibit feelings of anxiousness and stress.

These episodes are frightening and it is helpful to recognize whether you have experienced one or not. Chances are that you are all too aware that you have had an episode because the experience is so overwhelming. There are symptoms that indicate that an episode has occurred.

Symptoms of Panicked Episodes

The most pronounced symptoms are strongly related to fear. You feel as if your heart is going to burst out of your chest and breathing seems nearly impossible. Dizziness and nausea can occur, making the experience unbearable.

There is an unshakeable feeling that something terrible is about to happen or that something terrible is happening at the moment. The problem is that there seems to be no trigger for the episode. You simply fall into a deep state of panic and fear for no reason and your physical responses follow suit.

How to Stop Panic Attacks

The best way to stop panic attacks is to understand their nature. These episodes spill over into your consciousness through the subconscious mind. This realm does not recognize time the way that your conscious mind does. The subconscious does not know that there is no need to feel panicked and it is not aware that there are no immediate threats.

Once you are able to grasp this notion, you are better able to take control of the situation. Your panicked state is a helpful indicator that you have problems that need to be addressed on a subconscious level. You can stop worrying about episodes popping up out of nowhere when you take control of your panic and anxiety on a subconscious level.

Selecting Self-Hypnosis Recordings

One of the biggest challenges you have to face is choosing a self-hypnosis recording. Following are some examples of excellent compositions created by talented hypnotherapists and neuro linguistic trainers. It benefits you to choose a recording created by a skilled professional.

Debbie Williams is a fine example of a skilled professional who has impressive clinical experience. Her recording found here – Stop Panic Attacks – offers the support you need to guide you to success.

Another recording by Williams offers a powerful tool for helping you to stop feeling unnecessary worry. This recording can be found here – Stop Worrying – and it showcases Debbie’s uncanny ability to calm and relax you into the perfect hypnotic state.

Similar recordings are available here – Panic and Anxiety. Simply click on the links for additional information.

In this cyber world of email, computer games, ATM’s and other automated services anxiety and insecurity is on the increase as society fails to develop the social skills we need for human interaction. It used to be thought that Shyness was purely a product of our environment but we are beginning to understand that there is also an element of genetics involved. Whatever the cause though there are effective ways available to us that will help us overcome our shyness.

The first strategy that will help you overcome your anxiety is to clearly identify your personal triggers. Is it public speaking? Is it parties or other social gatherings? Focus on how you feel before these events. Do you project into the future and tell yourself in advance exactly how you are going to react? What physical symptoms do you experience? Give all your focus to the physical sensations you experience without attaching a story to them. Go as deeply into the sensations as you can. Where are they in your body? Do they move into different areas of the body as your anxiety grows? When we experience the physical symptoms of the anxiety without giving weight to the thoughts attached to them then what you are doing is disempowering the thought. Try this practice whenever you remember to and over a period of time you will notice the anxiety diminish considerably.

As part of this process of deconstructing the negative thought patterns that create the stress you can also write down the stories that come up for you. As soon as they appear in your mind put them down on paper. Doing this can be incredibly enlightening. While the thoughts remain in mind space they exercise a power over you. When you see them in black and white these thoughts come often seem quite ridiculous. Use the following questions to help you eradicate these negative thoughts. Is this story true? Can you really know it is true? How does the thought make you feel? Where would you be without this thought?

The last part of this powerfully healing process is to replace the negative thought patterns with positive ones. Take the stories you have written down and try to find their turnarounds. Write down the exact opposite of that story. Could that be equally true? Replay the new positive thought as a mantra and watch your self esteem grow.

Roland Poitevin is a dedicated writer with a passion for business and environmental issues.

You can check out his new website at Wrought Iron Furniture which helps people find the best Wrought Iron Outdoor Furniture and Wrought Iron Mirrors and information they are looking relating to this subject.

Anxiety is a psychological disorder. It has become a common problem among the people who lead a fast and tensed life. Both children and adults are found to be the victim of anxiety disorder when they find it difficult to cop up with the work load at school or at office.

Various methods that we use to treat it include drugs, therapy, self help and alterative therapy. Traditional medicine always prefers drug treatment to cure the symptoms of anxiety present in a patient. Though expensive, many use cognitive behavior therapy to overcome the difficulties and unrest associated with anxiety.

Hypnosis is proved o be very effective in treating all the problems relating to anxiety. A number of people now prefer hypnotherapy for anxiety treatment. Many who have experimented with this method of treatment witnesses the effectiveness of using hypnotherapy to remedy anxiety.

The person who wants to undergo a hypnotherapy for anxiety treatment will be put into a trace state of mind by the hypnotist. The hypnotist who specializes in this field of treatment is known as anxiety psychiatrist. Consulting an anxiety psychiatrist in time will help you from becoming a person with anxiety disorder.

Make sure that the hypnotist that you approach with an intention to avail hypnotherapy for anxiety is a qualified psychotherapist to avoid complications. Approach only the hypnotist who has a good reputation among their patients. Try to gather enough information about the work experience and the qualifications of the hypnotist you choose will help you to find the best hypnotist.

Some people try self hypnosis techniques at the comfort of their home to overcome the difficulties they face in their day to day life due to anxiety disorder. Self hypnotherapy for anxiety can be tried by a person after acquiring knowledge in different techniques and tools to be used in hypnotherapy. Self hypnotherapy for anxiety will not produce any result if you do it with out expertise or with out undergoing a hypnotherapy training.

If you are interested in making use of the techniques it is better to learn the techniques with the help of an expert hypnotist. You can also learn it through the online institution that imparts training in hypnosis.

Hypnosis scripts designed to address anxiety problems will also be a great help for the person who tries self hypnosis to cure this mental disorder. Inducing positive thoughts in the mind of the patient with the help of these scripts will definitely help the patient to overcome this state of mind.