5 Myths Causing Your Social Anxiety

by Dr. Perpetua Neo

''I once had a litany of excuses to avoid group events. You see, I was fraught with fear that people would think I was stupid or not good enough. The easiest way to avoid confronting this belief was to avoid events. And the surefire way to believe my belief was to never prove myself wrong.

However, out of necessity, through trial-and-error and various baptisms by fire, I uncovered the mindsets that perpetuated my social anxiety. Our mindsets are the invisible scripts that run and sometimes ruin our lives, and nurturing more realistic — yet compassionate — mindsets is how I learned to be comfortable with myself.

Eventually, "I'm busy" became more of an autopilot response, though it would've been a genuine explanation for spending time nourishing my introverted self. Back then, sites like mindbodygreen didn't exist, and I had no idea my experience had a name...''