Welcome back to the savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every

week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

Let's talk about social anxiety. This week we'll get right to the heart of the matter, the

palpitating heart if you're feeling anxious with the three best social anxiety

hacks I've ever come across. Now, socially anxious moments are universal. We've all felt that

self-conscious urge to hide. Maybe we find ourselves alone in the elevator with the boss.

We walk into a room and watch all the heads swivel towards us.

We get introduced to our friends' friends, and then, what do we say?

We feel the heat start to rise, the self-consciousness start to

fold in, the imagine judgment start to creep up. It's social anxiety, it's

universal, but guess what? It's also changeable. Now before we get into it, let's define exactly what we're talking about. What is social anxiety? Well, it is the belief that we have a fatal flaw, that there is something

wrong with us. We might think we're stupid, boring, an imposter, a babbling idiot, a total disaster.

And we think that unless we work hard to conceal or to hide our perceived flaw,

it will become obvious to everyone, and will be judged or rejected for it. But the belief in this

fatal flaw is mistaken. Nothing is wrong with you and I know that the

perception is so strong that it makes us act as if it were true.

If we're worried we're stupid, we won't raise our hand in class.

If we think we're an awkward loser, we'll spend our time at the

party scrolling through our phone. If we think we're incompetent, we'll pass on that promotion

at work.

So essentially social anxiety is a distorted view of who we are as a person.

It's like body dysmorphia, except instead of for the outside, it's for the inside, our personality, our character, our social competence.

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