Personally I would like to have a strategy, to know "how to think", when I'm actually in a social situation, because that's where I feel worst and where my negative thoughts do the most damage. On the very few occasions when I actually see a friend I just try and focus as much as I can on the conversation, ask simple questions when I don't know what to say, and try to be patient, because I know from experience that after a while the anxiousness tends do dissipate and you forget to be self-concious, at least for a little while. I think it's important to recognize those moments afterwards and try to recall that feeling. Sometimes it's extremely hard though not to get very anxious in social situations, if you feel like panicking, I think you should just go to the bath room and splash some cold water in your face, or pinch yourself, to try and focus on something else.
It's a weird thing though, trying to come up with strategies to make it easier to be with people; I mean, shouldn't the main goal be to resolve the conflicts in the psyche which created the mental problems in the firsst place? Personally I think there's only so much you can do without a therapeutic relationship to someone, a professional or otherwise.
[quote="playthepsychedelic")
btw, what does CBT mean?[/quote]
CBT means Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and is mostly focused around changing your thought patterns through conversations with a psychologist and through "home assignments". I think it seems too focused on just curing the symptoms though, and doesn't concern itself with the root of the problem, where does your social anxiety come from and so on. With the risk being that the symptom that is SA may be cured by CBT, whilst the root problem, in your personality/history remains unsolved and takes on a new form of expression.
