Impacts of Social Anxiety on Students- 6 Ways to Overcome it

How social anxiety impacts students ?

Social anxiety disorder is a phobia that makes people avoid social interactions. This usually comes from the growth and developmental process. Individuals acquire anxiety through a lot of shyness, mental/physical abuse and bullies from family and friends

Social anxiety is definitely harmful as it brings changes to your body. People gain weight and start to isolate themselves because of social anxiety. It is not something to take lightly and let go just because everybody goes through it. Everybody definitely goes through it, but not everybody comes out of it. There’s a difference and you must know that.

A serious anxiety level might require you to consult a Medicare for the treatment. So, before you reach to that height, I want to help you overcome it immediately.

In this article, I will make you aware of the effects of social anxiety so that you know its impact on your life as a student. The more you stay aware of the facts, the more you will attract positivity around you. This will also help you in lowering your anxiousness. Everything has a process. And your anxiety will also leave you step by step.

Now, you might have the question how?

Don’t worry. As you scroll down, you will get all the answers from the impacts of social anxiety to how you can overcome it.

What are the side effects of social anxiety?

The whole scenario in social anxiety disorder connects one thing with another to bring about changes in individuals.

1. Isolation

Individuals having social anxiety tend to isolate themselves. They avoid going out in public, meeting friends and have a conversation with them. They start to like being hidden under the cupboard so that nobody has to judge them.

These people have excuses ready on the tip of their tongue to avoid public events. They think that they might embarrass themselves through their silly acts. This makes them not connect with people who might contribute goodness in their lives.

Moreover, their friend circle sometimes tends to be incomplete. They hardly make any friend so they end up having one or two friends. And they are unable to keep up with them too because of their anxiety disorders and changing behaviors.

For example- if I am socially awkward and have social anxiety, I might get into the habit of avoiding going out in public so much that I would make excuses to close friends as well. And this sometimes results in losing friends and going through more shit in life. How to overcome this? You will know when you keep reading till the end.

• Loneliness

Since individuals isolate themselves, they unknowingly acquire the feeling of loneliness within them. They start to feel the need for somebody in their lives. This also makes them stressed and frustrated about how lonely they are and why there’s nobody they can go to even after having one or two friends.

The feeling increases to the level where their body and mind starts to react opposite. They feel the need of somebody’s presence so much that it starts to hurt them, they curse for not having friends and maybe romantic relationship like others do.

Such situations lead to overthinking and results in being less productive.

For example – if I am a kind of individual with social anxiety I might start to feel lonely so much that I will overthink how useless, unproductive and unattractive person I am that nobody wants to be around me. This sometimes makes an individual go in depression which leads to severe health issues.

How to overcome this? You will know when you keep reading till the end.

Click here to know the difference between stress and depression and what the causes are.

• Self-consciousness

An individual’s self-esteem at this point gets low. Their confidence level decreases. They are unable to represent themselves in front of the public. During lectures, seminars, presentations, and competitions individuals find it difficult to stand and even say a word.

They do every possible thing to avoid standing in front of the public or even attending such events. They think that they would be judged by others. Social anxiety disorder tends to increase the weight of individuals which also makes them conscious about how they look and what would anybody think of them.

This is the most serious issue in most of the students having social anxiety. They feel body-shamed, overweight and try to lose the fats out of frustration.

For example- If I increase weight because of sitting home all day, being unproductive and not going out, I might not want to go out more because now I don’t look nice and people will comment on how bad I have started to look. And this leads to mental health issue which is definitely of harm to any individual. How to overcome this? You will come to know when you keep reading.

• Eating disorder

Individual’s behavior changes when they’re anxious. And social anxiety when reached to a limit it brings a lot of body changes and eating disorders as well. Individuals start to overeat or not eat at all because of the fear of gaining weight.

Some individuals in anxiety start to eat more which makes them think that they are gaining weight so they in stress start to eat even more and regret about how fat and ugly they look. However, some individuals start to avoid one time meals to not gain weight even after being underweight. Their need of getting thin increases to the point where they avoid eating certain food items, avoid drinks and keep examining their body on how it looks and how it should look. This behavior is also known as anorexia or bulimia behavior in which individuals suffer from eating disorders.

Now I will answer the question how to overcome social anxiety?

Its normal to have social anxiety but to have it on a level is harmful. To overcome social anxiety disorder, you need to start with small.

Here’s an example for your reference : First you will start with warm up exercises to lose weight. Slowly the workout hours will increase. And then you will get into habit of doing it regularly.

Similarly, anxiety requires a process to overcome it.

• First build up your self-esteem. You can increase it by starting to go to family and relatives’ events. Home is the place where everybody is known. This may make you less awkward and help you decreas the level of social anxiety in you. The point to start with home is to let you get comfortable with your relatives first.
• Practice in front of the mirror. This will make you aware of your good and bad traits. And the confidence level will increase.
• Standup to answer in the classroom. Take initiative. Participate in college activities, social events.
• Take the initiative to make and meet friends.
• Take the initiative to talk to your classmates, colleagues, and people in your surroundings. This will teach you how to start conversations and communicate well.
• And to lose weight, take less stress, be physically active and go as much out as you can. This practice will decrease eating disorders and will improve your stamina as well.

These are the exact solutions that I have applied on myself and in a few of my counseling sessions. This will help you in a long run and you will be able to help others too.

If there’s any other topic that you would want me to cover, feel free to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you out.

Have a good day ahead 🙂