The ANTs go marching one by one by two by ten by….it just doesn’t stop!

When you’re suffering from social anxiety, or really anxiety of any kind the stream of negative thoughts can seem endless. It used to seem to me like there was nothing I could do about it, nothing to stop the thoughts and the pain they generated.

But it can be done. I did it, and so can you.

Once of the most important parts of CBT is “thought challenging” which can be done while writing out beliefs, to identify the irrational negative thoughts, and write out more rational statements to counter them. However, this is only part of the puzzle of un-wiring social anxiety.

Once we’ve begun doing our therapy for overcoming social anxiety disorder, I think where the real work gets done is in the moment we are experience the ANTs, whether it’s via anticipatory anxiety while at home, or out in the world being around people.

So how is this done? Well here’s the first technique I used, that I learned from Dr. Richards and it goes something like this:

1) Be on the look out for ANY negative thoughts (Awareness)

2) Stop whatever you are doing

3) Intervene with a thought challenging statement

So what is a thought challenging statement look like? Here’s an example:

“Stop! These negative thoughts are not good for me. They aren’t healthy or helpful, so I have decided to move in a better direction, and learn to think differently.” (From the Overcoming Social Anxiety Step-by-Step course, by Dr. Thomas Richards)

In order to burn the statement into your brain, you need to write it on an 3×5 index card, and say it outloud 3 times a day (minimum) until you learn it.  Then when those ANTs come marching, you do the steps I’ve outlined above.  It’s that simple.

Start giving it a try.  Let me know how it works out for you.

Now, truthfully this is only one way to “thought challenge” and it was very effective when I used it. Now I use different techniques which are more like “thought releasing” although similar, is a slightly different approach, and I find them to be more effective. I’m an advocate of having as many tools as possible to attack/release an issue, because what works in one instance, may not work in another. A good analogy is having a flat head screwdriver, that works for a phillips head screw you are trying to tighten, but not as well as a phillps-head screwdriver would work on that screw. Hope that makes sense! I just came up with that in the moment while writing here. :)

I’ll be covering those techniques in other posts, and also in the online program on conquering social anxiety for good, that I’m working on. I’m really excited about it, and also a bit nervous, but I’ll be throwing in all the techniques and method that I’ve used to overcome my social anxiety, and what I do to continue to manage it, when it shows up.

One really killer thing about learning to overcome your social phobia is that not only does it help heal it, it helps you get control of your life in a way you never imagined.

If you’d like to read about the “Dissolve Social Anxiety” 12-week home recovery program – click right here.

If you’d like to find out about one-on-one coaching with me for social anxiety – you can read about Skype video coaching.

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