Does anyone know of a method for working with social anxiety?

Some good tips there already. I have social anxiety myself, and it changes from day to day, depending on how restless or depressed I am. I have gotten a lot of help from a psychologist. Often, but not always, it helps me if I think of life as a game, where I have nothing to lose, and everything to win, to overcome certain situations, or do things I'd normally be deathly afraid of. And sometimes I just throw myself towards the least pleasant path towards advancement. When I manage this, I almost get a high for a long while afterwards. Though, some days nothing can help me. But if you only have social anxiety, and not depression (I have both), it should be easier to remove the worst of your symptoms.

PS: My psychologist recommends meditation thirty minutes a day, with very slow breathing. He claims it helps remove unneccessary and wrong alarm signals between body and mind. Or some such.

Hi JustineS,

Don't know if this helps but one thing I've learned about this issue (have a severe form of it) is that it's like you're a computer constantly pinging the server and the server is all that is around you.  For some reason, the way you define yourself is by looking for self definition in your environment.  People with this seem to create themselves by looking at what is around them.  They identify with everything and everyone and look for relevance.  If the environment has any sort of hostile tone (and the negative voice appears to be always present along with the positive), they judge themselves.  It's genetic (studies show) and may be some sort of automatic trigger in the energy body (imho).

It's really bizarre.

One thing I'm exploring for relief is EFT, emotional freedom technique (google search) and it's suppose to neutralize your energy system.  But I don't know if that's necessarily the best choice.  Do you become just an observer then?  Why would anyone want that result?

It does help to have a good sense of humor, that's what's said anyhow.

It also helps if you find a group of people who are like you and understand the situation, there are support groups out there....if you can get these other people to leave their house, lol.  

There's a duality that results from this disorder, imho.  The conflict between desire to preserve the self identity and the desire to totally give up the ego.

If you are dealing with this, JustineS, I really wish you well.  Be kind to yourself and know you're not alone.

I've suffered from social anxiety all of my life. But watching people helped me understand why some people act so hostile towards me. Knowing the reason makes me feel much better because I don't feel like a victim any more. (some people don't feel good about themselves and are trying to cover it up, others are just careless and not aware of the consequences of their actions, etc.)

I'd suggest exposing yourself more to the outside world. I studied archaeology, so I'd be sitting in an office, thinking about the past, now I ended up in a supermarket (cashier). I was surprised to find out how many people are nice to me.
For every jerk there's someone later in the line telling me not to worry cuz that jerk acts like that towards everyone. Now dealing with jerks has become some kind of "mental martial art", a challenge rather than torture.

It might also be helpful to take a walk in a neighbourhood where people are a little more relaxed. It always makes me feel good to hear some kind words, even if they're not directed at me.

hope I could help,
take care and good night,
Vagabound