Social Anxiety - Fear Of Disapproval

Social anxiety and disapproval seem to go hand in hand. Many with social anxiety, or social phobia, believe that they have to be liked and approved by everyone.

So, we are doomed from the start. Not everyone is going to be liked, and not everyone will be met with approval. Remember the “you can't please all the people all the time?” Well, obviously it is true.

This is huge for me to deal with on a daily basis. Even writing in this blog is extremely difficult. One way I avoid, is to use my word program to write these entries, and wait a couple of days before actually posting them to my blog. I “forget” what I wrote, and just post.

Along with the fear of disapproval from others, there is an exaggeration of the consequences of what will actually happen if disapproval is met. So for my fear of writing in my blog, my exaggeration is that I will get hate mail, comments, and ridicule from everyone. Everyone? Definitely an exaggeration.

When we can identify our thought process regarding the fear of disapproval and the exaggerated outcome, we can begin to heal.

Until next time...