Anxiety

Just a couple of tips that might help you through your day.

• focusing on being kind to other people or on considering thoughtfully the situation of others may help you
• in social situations, having some hand craft or some other activity like drawing may be a useful way to be with others, while still lessening the intensity of the interaction and limiting the amount of eye contact

Report on research from Simon Fraser University, by psychologist Jennifer Trew: LINK

” Want To Reduce Your Social Anxiety? Just Be Kind
Focusing on other people, and not yourself, helps take the pressure off. “

Post written by Jessica Leber, a staff editor and writer for Fast Company’s Co.Exist.

(2) The tip re: using hand crafts (such as knitting) as a way to allow people to tolerate being in social situations I first saw in an excellent book on eating disorders. By the very well-respected Dr. C. Laird Birmingham and Janet Treasure, the book is “Medical Management of Eating Disorders, second edition”. They suggest this as one tactic that may help people to attend group sessions, when otherwise they would find it too difficult.

Generations of women doing knitting, needlework and other crafts habitually in social situations has carved out a niche for this as a socially acceptable activity.