Some thoughts on Social Anxiety & some of the things I am learning along the way (b).

The following is an further extract of the views expressed by one of our group members. It is been reproduced here with their explicit permission. Would love to hear your comments and reflections. Odhran

I can also say, that for a long time I thought that if people had good social skills and self confidence, that they had made it and really didn’t have any problems. But in the last few years I have met a lot of people like that, who have impeccable social skills and seem to be bubbling over with self-confidence, but because of the particular context I am meeting them in, I know that they are dealing with mental health difficulties and might be feeling quite bad about themselves. The difference is they are able to hide their conditions better than someone with social anxiety and they can perhaps function better in society. If I was at work or at college with them, I’d never guess that there was a problem.

So that has thought me a lesson, that while it is certainly a bonus in life to be able to conduct yourself with ease around other people it is not the b-all and end-all of everything either. It’s not a guarantee that you’ll like yourself or that you’ll feel good about yourself. So it’s not a good idea to go around comparing yourself to other people, because it never really is the full picture