A file for social anxiety?

[Rotoscope]

Hi everybody,

To start a quick background:

I've had serious social anxiety for most of my life, to a level that people would most likely call a phobia. And I don't mean just speaking in front of a crowd is stressful, it's far more pervasive than that. Striking up conversations with people I don't know well(of which there are very few, for the same reason) brings me to a cold sweat. I don't go to big gatherings, parties etc. unless absolutely necessary, and then I often have to tangle with panic attacks. The list goes on, you get the idea.

Now the thing about this is that I would very much like to be more extroverted, as in, I want to go out and have fun, meet lots of people and all that stuff. I don't have a genuine aversion to being social at all, but I have anxiety surrounding it that's so severe I end up just doing the bare minimum I have to do and then getting back home.

I'm determined to find a way to kick this thing, since it's really obstructing my life, but I'm not sure where to start short of going to a therapist(which I can't afford at the moment).

That brings me to hypnosis. I've really been trying to get into hypnosis lately because it sounds immensely fun, for kinky reasons and otherwise, and because it sounds relaxing(I'm still very new to it), and I thought why not try hypnosis for social anxiety, see if it helps?

Finally the crux of my post: does anyone know of a file, either on this site or another, that's geared toward dispelling social anxiety in people?

Thanks for the help :)

[Endo]

No. And I wouldn't be looking for such a lowball fix to something that could have serious psychological roots.

So, tell me about your childhood. How were you treated by your parents? Were you brought up in a strict religious home? Were you spanked, screamed at, verbally abused in any other way, by your parents? Was your father vacant in your life? Do you have blank spots in your early life memories? Etc. I realize that stuff is all very personal, but if the answer to any of those was "yes" (and I'm going to bet that at least a few of those apply to you), then you REALLY NEED TO SEEK THERAPY. There are VERY FEW other ways to deal with the roots of your problem.

Say, are you in college? Do you have some sort of healthcare plan? A very generous boss, perhaps? There are plenty of ways to get free help, especially if you're a student in college. I beg you, please look into your formal options, and don't rely on us for a fix. We are not qualified to help you deal with trauma in your past.

[OxyFemboi]

iKink wrote:
Finally the crux of my post: does anyone know of a file, either on this site or another, that's geared toward dispelling social anxiety in people?

This is not something that can be treated with hypnosis. At most, hypnosis may be a band-aid on a gaping wound. There may be underlying causes that hypnosis cannot touch.

I counsel anyone with symptoms similar to what you describe to see a psychologist or psychiatrist. The difference between the two is simple: a psychiatrist can prescribe medication while a psychologist can only use various types of therapy. A competent therapist should be able to help tremendously.

Cognitive Therapy can work wonders.

[lew897]

I don't want to sound like odd man out, but saying that this person is hopeless is kinda depressing in and of itself. There are techniques that can help a person perceive certain things. The stories we tell areshelves tend to be more important than reality. Bandler says that if you don't like the image change it. My suggestion is to continue listening to relaxing files, and the truth is that you have to be comfortable with uncertainty.

[OxyFemboi]

lew wrote:
I don't want to sound like odd man out, but saying that this person is hopeless is kinda depressing in and of itself. There are techniques that can help a person perceive certain things. The stories we tell ourselves tend to be more important than reality. Bandler says that if you don't like the image change it. My suggestion is to continue listening to relaxing files, and the truth is that you have to be comfortable with uncertainty.

I'm not saying his situation is hopeless. I'm saying that my first choice in this situation would not be to download a general hypnosis file that sometimes needs a specialist. As an experiment, I typed in "social anxiety hypnosis" and got lots of hits. Most have "hypnotherapy" or "therapist" in the descriptions. There are downloads for social anxiety mp3s like http://www.hypnosisdownloads.com/social-anxiety. I also found comments like "I can vouch for the hypnosis downloads at hypnoshop.com".

Several of the NLP-based paraliminal cds/downloads of Learning Strategies Corporation (at http://www.learningstrategies.com/Paraliminal/Home.asp ) -- such as New Behavior Generator, Anxiety Free, Belief, and New Action Generator -- could be used to treat Social Anxiety. Since they are extremely versatile programs, they have many other uses as well. Learning Strategies has been in business for decades; I bought -- literally -- most of their programs in the 1980s and early 1990s when they were sold on cassettes. I did not replace them when they reissued the programs on cds. I should have; the prices have more or less doubled. They do have a buy-three-got-one-free offer, though. I recommend all of Learning Strategies Corporation's products wholeheartedly! Note: I don't give blanket recommendations like this very often.

[lew897]

Okay cool. Sometimes I misread stuff. Lol. But my post was directed at both Endo and Oxy since I sorta feel like the most knowledgeable person on these types of sites maybe Im just falling into the idea that Im all knowing. lol. I probably need to step back from hypnosis for a while and get perspective. I genuinely believe hypnosis is only limited by the imagination.

[jcdps]

I have social anxiety but I don't know how bad it is compared to others. Sometimes I can make myself do what I have to, but it's always very stressful.

I am definitely interested in a file for this.

You can't just go to therapy, if you have social anxiety it can keep you away from that.

[OxyFemboi]

jcdps wrote:
I have social anxiety but I don't know how bad it is compared to others. Sometimes I can make myself do what I have to, but it's always very stressful.

I am definitely interested in a file for this.

You can't just go to therapy, if you have social anxiety it can keep you away from that.

I understand. Mom had panic disorder. I can only be described as "painfully shy" in person.

That's why I suggested the www.LearningStrategies.com paraliminal files, which are based on NLP techniques. At least a few of them are tailored for situations like this. And since you define what the "behavior" to be eliminated and/or replaced is in New Behavior Generator (and most of their other files), you can use them as a sort of self-therapy until you are comfortable enough to make and keep an appointment.

lew wrote
Okay cool. Sometimes I misread stuff. Lol. But my post was directed at both Endo and Oxy since I sorta feel like the most knowledgeable person on these types of sites maybe Im just falling into the idea that Im all knowing. lol. I probably need to step back from hypnosis for a while and get perspective. I genuinely believe hypnosis is only limited by the imagination.

I don't know. You may be more knowledgeable than I am. I know that I don't know everything ... but I'm working on it. Maybe in a few centuries, I'll begin to feel I made a start. I know that many people on WMM and other sites have complementary knowledge.

There is an old adage in science fiction fandom: All knowledge is contained in fandom. The saying is a bit arrogant but I found it to be mostly true. There are so many polymaths in sf fandom that I could usually find out what I wanted to know without much effort. I know that sf fandom has an overabundance of polymaths.

The last person able to know everything lived a long time ago. I just googled "last person who knew everything" and found several people who had been assigned that title: Aristotle, Roger Bacon, Leonardo da Vinci, Francis Bacon, John Milton, Johannes Kepler, and Immanuel Kant, and Johann Goethe (among others). Source: http://www.eoht.info/page/Last+person+to+know+everything

None of the contenders lived recently. Most, though not all, died before 1850.

I agree that the only limits to hypnosis is the imagination (and skill) of the hypnotist. However, none of use are competent enough to know even one area totally, much less the entire universe of knowledge. The best we can do is to be able to find out how to find out anything, which is the job description of a competent reference librarian. And even reference librarians specialize.

[Ardea]

Hi everybody,

To start a quick background:

I've had serious social anxiety for most of my life, to a level that people would most likely call a phobia. And I don't mean just speaking in front of a crowd is stressful, it's far more pervasive than that. Striking up conversations with people I don't know well(of which there are very few, for the same reason) brings me to a cold sweat. I don't go to big gatherings, parties etc. unless absolutely necessary, and then I often have to tangle with panic attacks. The list goes on, you get the idea.

Now the thing about this is that I would very much like to be more extroverted, as in, I want to go out and have fun, meet lots of people and all that stuff. I don't have a genuine aversion to being social at all, but I have anxiety surrounding it that's so severe I end up just doing the bare minimum I have to do and then getting back home.

I'm determined to find a way to kick this thing, since it's really obstructing my life, but I'm not sure where to start short of going to a therapist(which I can't afford at the moment).

That brings me to hypnosis. I've really been trying to get into hypnosis lately because it sounds immensely fun, for kinky reasons and otherwise, and because it sounds relaxing(I'm still very new to it), and I thought why not try hypnosis for social anxiety, see if it helps?

Finally the crux of my post: does anyone know of a file, either on this site or another, that's geared toward dispelling social anxiety in people?

Thanks for the help :)

Umm I totally did dispell mine...

Want to know how?

1.) A strong belief that you can be set free
2.) Action (small steps, asking for the time from someone etc. ---> asking a girl out [with no energy on the outcome- you could care if she said no or yes]
3.) Affirmations
4.) A mentor to help you.

[lew897]

I give credit to the people who lived a long time that used NLP, but to say they are smarter than us is kinda funny. They are dead!

[lew897]

I also disagree about the area of knowledge, if its books and limited there is someone whos read it all and memorized it therefor knows everything about the subject but that doesn't mean he/she knows everything outside of book knowledge.

[lew897]

As for the skill of the hypnotist is also laugeable since some people are extremely hypnotizable and some who probably cant be without their own help and persistence.