{"id":23465,"date":"2022-11-07T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T12:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/?p=23465"},"modified":"2022-11-07T12:30:45","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T12:30:45","slug":"three-ways-to-tackle-social-anxiety-at-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/blog\/three-ways-to-tackle-social-anxiety-at-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Three ways to tackle social anxiety at university"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Going to university is an exciting time in life. It can also be difficult, particularly if you experience social anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>Social anxiety is an overwhelming fear of social situations that goes beyond shyness.<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"color: #086a87; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/mental-health\/conditions\/social-anxiety\/\">&nbsp;According to the NHS<\/a>, symptoms can include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Worrying about everyday things like meeting strangers, starting conversations, and speaking on the phone<\/li>\n<li>Avoiding or worrying about social activities, like group conversations and parties<\/li>\n<li>Being afraid of being criticised, watched, or doing something you believe to be embarrassing<\/li>\n<li>Feeling nauseous, sweating, trembling, or experiencing heart palpitations or panic attacks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fortunately there are ways to tackle social anxiety when you\u2019re at university, allowing you to enjoy the experience more fully and cope with your feelings head on. Here are three things which can help.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><strong>1. Share your worries with friends and family<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nIt\u2019s easy to think that everyone else feels totally comfortable in social situations, but that\u2019s not often the case. We all have our insecurities and lots of people worry about how they\u2019ll come across to others. If you bring this topic up with friends and family, you might be surprised by just how many of them have had similar experiences to your own.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, <a style=\"color: #086a87; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mentalhealth.org.uk\/your-mental-health\/looking-after-your-mental-health\/talk-about-your-feelings\">sharing an issue you\u2019re facing with people you trust <\/a>can be a healthy way to deal with it. Instead of keeping it bottled up inside, you\u2019re being listened to and supported, which can help in itself. Saying your thoughts out loud is also a way to rationalise them and make sense of how you\u2019re feeling.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><strong>2.&nbsp;Get support from your university<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<a style=\"color: #086a87; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/universitycompare.com\/guides\/students-managing-anxiety\/\">&nbsp;Each university has services available <\/a>to students who need help and support. General wellbeing services cover everything from mental health to finances and accommodation, while more specific mental health services may provide treatment like counselling.<\/p>\n<p>Counselling is a type of talking therapy, carried out by a trained therapist. The therapist will help you by listening to you explain your problem, then finding ways for you to address it. Their job is not to judge you or tell you what to do \u2013 it\u2019s to help you better understand your feelings and find solutions yourself.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 15px;\"><strong>3. Avoid isolating yourself<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nIt\u2019s tempting to avoid the social situations you worry about. However, while this might bring short-term relief, in the long run it can make it even more difficult to go out of your comfort zone and carry out everyday activities.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t have to be the life and soul of the party. But it\u2019s worth finding activities to do outside of lectures and seminars. The great thing about university life is that there is normally a tonne of clubs and societies to join, across all sorts of activities and hobbies. You\u2019re able to find like-minded people and since you already have something in common, you\u2019ll often find the conversation is able to flow.<\/p>\n<p>You can find your university\u2019s clubs and societies at Freshers\u2019 Fair, and they are often listed on the university\u2019s website too.<\/p>\n<p>Social anxiety can be tricky to deal with, but university offers a great opportunity to tackle it and grow as a person. You might surprise yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Going to university is an exciting time in life. It can also be difficult, particularly if you experience social anxiety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","category-students-and-graduate-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23465"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26326,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23465\/revisions\/26326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studentemploymentservices.co.uk\/staging\/3440\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}