• I'm back on my BS 🤪@lemmy.autism.place
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      ·
      4 months ago

      Actually, using alcohol could make the problem worse through classical conditioning. By drinking alcohol every time you get socially anxious, it teaches your body that alcohol is coming. That would make your body get even more anxious to make up for the anxiolytic effect of alcohol. Eventually, not only will you be dealing with social anxiety, but also alcohol cravings. You’d be socially anxious and alcohol dependent.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      4 months ago

      Used to think this, and absolutely would have ignored me if someone had said this to me at 25, but quitting booze altogether has really evened out exactly those more extreme feelings.

  • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    4 months ago

    cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety can have a huge impact. also, learning diaphragmatic breathing helps regulate your stress response and can de-activate the sympathetic nervous system (and re-engage the parasympathetic nervous system). there is also some promising research emerging regarding sensiomotor psychotherapy.

      • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        4 months ago

        All therapy is contingent on the quality of the relationship between client and therapist. Thought Records, which are a huge part of formal cbt, can be quite effective in reducing the emotional impact of negative automatic thoughts, which is a very large component of social anxiety.

    • criticon@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      46
      ·
      4 months ago

      People with social anxiety born before 1980 didn’t have the memes to express themselves

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          4 months ago

          Hard to say. Definitely not as many people actually naming their anxiety. It was sort of taboo to talk about mental health plainly.

          But a lotttt of folks with dubious coping mechanisms, just repressed and bottled up without even the memes to combat their anomie.

    • BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      4 months ago

      Like a lot of the problems from the past, you basically figured it out yourself or just went off to die in a corner alone and didn’t talk about it.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      things generally haven’t been great since the industrial revolution, but the big thing is that nowadays we’re just soaked in stress at all times with little reprieve.
      Used to be in the past that things were generally chill except for big stressful events that happened every now and then, but nowadays things are constantly loud, we constantly have to hurry to do stuff, we constantly have to worry about affording basic things and knowing that we’ll probably never own a home, etc etc etc.

      We’re also in the middle of a loneliness epidemic, it’s basically standard at this point to have few friends and not hanging out with people anywhere near enough. Add these things together and you get people being miserable.

  • LouNeko@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    4 months ago

    Given that there always a combination of words that will end up with you being punched in the jaw, I say it’s justified.