Psychology in Seattle.

Hello and welcome to the Psychology in Seattle podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Kirk Honda.

I'm a therapist and a professor it's just me today I am

doing chapter four of responding to everyone's emails that I have been acquiring

over a long period of time, maybe years, and so it's spring and I'm trying to clean out the closet and actually answer everyone's emails.

So let's get into it.

Anonymous patron wrote in asking me to talk about stigma against social anxiety.

They write, as you likely know and agree, mental illness stigma is still an overwhelming issue in society with some improvements

recently.

But for the most part, I would argue that most people really still don't give a shit.

I suspect that there's a lot of talking and not a lot of walking. A big part of the problem

is that everyone has experienced social anxiety to some extent, so they assume that they

get it and that other people should be able to navigate it just like they have.

As someone who has experienced social anxiety and as someone who has recently begun graduate training to be a clinician,

I have been on both sides of the anxiety fence, so to speak.

When I notice that someone is feeling anxious in a social setting, I just do my best to speak

with them like they're on the same level as me.

Most socially anxious people are just looking to feel normal,

but I'm not sure many people understand this.

I found it discouraging to at times to be personally experiencing the stigma in graduate school

in the way other trainees and professionals talk about anxious clients. The stigma can be very subtle. I had to just get this off

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