Social Anxiety

Before I came to Marla, I was experiencing extreme social anxiety disorder which affected many of my relationships with friends and work colleagues and to a certain extent restricted my career development within banking.

I feared that people would judge me and consider me to be boring, having nothing of interest to say. This impacted my ability to converse and I often found myself sitting quietly in the corner listening to everyone else instead of getting involved. When I was asked for an opinion I would become embarrassed and start to flap. In addition to this I would assess every meeting I had, going over the conversation in my mind and time again wondering what the other person thought of me and being annoyed that I hadn’t performed better. Gradually this became worse and I started to fear meeting people, even friends. I began predicting how I thought the meeting would go and as a result became nervous and agitated before arriving.

At work I never volunteered information and if I was asked to prepare a speech or give a brief talk, would often try and get out of it.

During therapy we discussed my history and looked at anxiety triggers. I was given practical “homework” to do and asked to identify and assess triggers when they occurred which was extremely helpful. We would then discuss how the exercises went the following week and work though them to find a solution. I was also asked to create a list of short and long term goals for the future which gave me perspective and something to work towards.

Marla’s methods for overcoming anxiety were excellent as was her advice! The therapy was a success and I am much more capable in social situations now.

Anon, E14