Imagine going out into the world shaking in fear of socializing with others. There are students that live in fear without feeling like they can talk to anyone about their problems. If you didn’t know what social anxiety was, it is a disorder that is an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others. Personally, for people they don’t tend to think about having social anxiety and some people think that others are faking it. We all as a whole community should not tell people what they have and assume that they’re faking it. Instead we should lift up others and try to help them.
How to Cope:
Many students now are still feeling the effects of the pandemic. More of us have become shy, wanting to look at their phones or play video games alone, instead of going out into the world. This is a direct result of social anxiety.
Mrs. Duffy, a 6th grade language arts teacher explained why covid had an impact with social anxiety. She said, “It’s because they were locked in a house and didn’t have the experiences they should have, especially children.”
Shea Dohoney, a 7th grade student at WMS, stated what are good skills to work on for social anxiety, “What I did was basically I kept on talking to people and during covid we were allowed to go back to school so I could actually socialize more.”
Mrs. Duffy said what would be more beneficial for those with social anxiety, “Feeling the fear and doing it anyway so when you don’t want to go someplace force yourself because each time you do it you grow a little more.”
Dohoney commented on how she knows the differences between stress or anxiety, “Stress you get headaches a lot, but with anxiety you fidget and can’t really breathe.”
Speaking the Truth:
Bella-Sofia Ortiz, a 8th grade student at WMS, expounded some skills that would boost up confidence, “Definitely speaking your truth. I feel like once you do that you feel like your own person. Also when you look in the mirror you have to realize you’re you, you are your unique self and you don’t have to be like everybody else.”
Mrs. Acheson, a counselor at WMS, stated what would be more beneficial for those who have social anxiety, “I think for anxiety, in general, I’ll start with it is really important to know that the idea of anxiety comes from not understanding that there is a lack of control, we get anxiety about things we don’t have control over. So understanding what we do have control over, like our own thoughts, feelings, behaviors, things like that versus the outside world having impacts on us.”
Acheson also explained, “For social anxiety in particular people focus more on the big picture which means all of what’s happening instead of what their own personal needs are. So if you took a second to say ‘okay, what do I need in this situation’ not ‘what is everyone else doing’ it would help recenter someone and decrease the anxiety, but that’s hard.”
Ortiz also explained what would be more beneficial for people who have social anxiety, “Definitely social practice I never really had social anxiety, but people who have it I feel like they’re scared to come out of their shell but I mean I go by ‘yolo’ like I feel like you live once so live to the fullest.”
Building Confidence:
Mrs. Acheson commented on what skills could help boost up confidence and socialize more, “I think confidence is definitely the first key, but to have confidence you have to understand yourself so I think starting there and taking a good look in the evaluation assessment of who you are as a human first, understanding that your needs are important is really good.”
Acheson continued, “I love ‘I am’ statements, even though they’re weird. I get it telling yourself your awesome, your cool, your smart, your funny, your beautiful is not something people do they kinda do the opposite.”
Mrs. Acheson also recommended something called grounding techniques.
Grounding techniques are practice that can help you refocus when you are feeling anxious, for example, breathing and focusing on what is around you. For more examples of grounding, you can check out Healthline.
There are so many people who are in their shells, trying to be someone else and fit in. They’re drowning in their thoughts, and tearing themselves apart. They say they’re okay but really aren’t and have these fears of what’s happening the next day. Why do you think this happens, we’ll we can make it better and ask if they’re okay, help them get through it.
