Posted by Peter D on 4/8/2012, 1:53 pm

What is it that stops us from tackling this frustrating and debilitating social anxiety disorder? Two emotions: fear and shame. Fear of negative appraisal, of humiliation, of mockery; fear of being shamed; shame of perceived incompetence, of failure, of being seen to be defective. How can we attack these negative emotions that limit us so? We have to ‘Come Out’. We have to admit to our problem to those we can trust. And there is no-one more trustworthy with this disclosure than another participant in a UKPT workshop. There will also be faithful family members and friends who can be told… and what a weight off… they still think that I am a worthwhile person! Attacking the processes that generate the feeling of shame can be quite rapidly effective; we just have to keep sharing our difficulty. Addressing the fear takes a bit longer, due to its being controlled by the operation of automatic survival mechanisms. But, bit by bit, densense session by desense session, we improve. As one who has attended 3 workshops: one beginners and two improvers, I urge anyone who is undecided or swayed from attendance by these negative emotions, to ‘bite the bullet’. The experience of being accepted, understood and then systematically supported with a method that really works is life-changing.

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