Brian Adams - Social Anxiety: Ultimate Guide to Overcoming Fear, Shyness, and Social Phobia to Achieve Success in All Social Situations

If you dont think your anxiety, depression, sadness and stress impact your physical health, think again. All of these emotions trigger chemical reactions in your body, which can lead to inflammation and a weakened immune system. Learn how to cope, sweet friend. There will always be dark days. Kris Carr

Before we go specifically into social anxiety, allow me to share with you my own experience with it as well as explain anxiety in general so you can better appreciate the things Ill be sharing with you concerning social anxiety. Here goes.

Almost every week, I go up on stage to address more than 1,000 people during our church service. Many times, the topic that Im expected to talk about for a given weekend service is given to me at least 7 days prior. There are times, however, that Im only given a day or 2 to get ready. Even more exciting than that, there were and still are an instance or two when Im asked to substitute for the assigned person at the start of the service itself.

Would you believe me if I tell you and I dont mean to brag that it doesnt bother me anymore whether Im given a week or minutes to prepare? Heres more would you actually believe me if I told you that I used to be a nervous wreck even just talking to a girl that I like or having to make small talk to anyone? You may be wondering, howd that happen? Well, heres my story.

I used to be really, really shy. Like I said, even the prospect of having to make small talk is enough to make me sweat blood. To me, engaging a totally random stranger for small but rational talk is just about as risky as approaching the same but yelling at his or her face I am weird! How weird is that, huh?

But that was a long time ago. Like I wrote earlier, Im now at a point where Im very comfortable standing in front of more than 1,000 people on any given Sunday almost every week. What happened, you may ask. Well, as much as my humble self would like to take all the credit for the 180-degree turn, sadly I cant. I would say it was really Gods hand that led me to situations that molded my personality and allowed me to overcome my social anxiety.

My fathers unexpected and in my view, untimely death in 2000 compelled me to seek answers as to why it happened and to look for a way to strengthen myself in moving on with life. It so happened that there was an upcoming orientation seminar for a group of single people in the church that I was going to at that time. Being quite the religious person that my parents raised me to be, I registered and attended that 13-week program.

At the end of that 13-week program came my first social anxiety baptism of fire: dance in public! I know for most people, its a joy. But since I was a socially awkward and very shy person who happens to be as adept to dancing as Manny Pacquiao is to singing, for me it was a near-death experience!

Believe me, I tried exercising my right to vote myself out of it but all my other group mates outvoted me so against my will, I was forced to humiliate myself by dancing in front of people. Although we were in a group, I danced like a log so naturally, peoples attention gravitated toward me screaming my name. That made the nauseating and anxious sensation even worse. I wanted to both hide and puke. But I guess God (or whatever deity you believe in or the cosmos) was real! I survived was able to go back to my normal, shy and away-from-people introverted life. Or so I thought.

For some strange reason, the powers that be in that church community thought Id make for great leadership material. So after some pressure from leaders and an unforeseen covenant that I had to make with God, I decided to accept the position of heading the next batchs orientation program. This would mean that apart from overseeing other volunteers, Ill also be the speaker of last resort for each and every one of the 13 weekly talks, in case the designated speakers cant make it. What have I gotten myself into?