Anxiety Goals

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my social anxiety, and how it’s effected my quality of life. And in order to make the path to recovery more clear, I decided that it would be best to compile a list of specific things I wanted to work on.

As I mentioned in The Benefits of Introspection, it is helpful to identify all of the aspects of yourself you want to change and then work on them one at a time. Since social anxiety is a huge undertaking in and of itself, it makes sense to break it down further.

Here are the factors that I feel my anxiety makes most difficult for me:

1. Speaking Audibly (even when nervous)
2. Initiating Conversations/Greeting Others
3. Holding Conversations
4. Arranging to Meet With People/Sending Invitations
5. Making Phone Calls
6. Making Physical Contact

I ranked each factor in terms of perceived difficulty (number 1 being least difficult), so I’ll probably start with the top and work my way down. All of the six are problems that I’ve had for as long as I can remember, but I’ve just not gotten around to (or really thought about) trying to correct them.

Some of these I can probably tackle simultaneously (like speaking up and greeting people) and some of them I have already started to work on (like making phone calls). Nevertheless, each one will be difficult to take on.

I will do my best, of course.