My first thought, an anxious one, was that it was scary to talk about this in public. Which it is, but fuck it.
A really valuable part was booking regular appointments with a therapist. One of the subtle things about anxiety is that it often naturally leads to avoidance. Deciding to be regularly accountable for my progress kept me from just sweeping it back under the rug.
Other than that, I did a lot of experimenting to see how to keep my general stress and anxiety levels low. Diet, exercise, sleep schedule, and home environment all made important differences for me. With a more chill baseline, the social stuff was easier to deal with.
Another chunk was recognizing how self-reinforcing anxiety can be. When anxiety makes an experience worse, it trains us that the experience is bad, which triggers more anxiety next time. Learning to slowly undo that process was helpful. (That might have come out of Hallowell's Worry, but I no longer recall.)
Meditation was definitely helpful. Partly because a big part is practice in quieting one's thoughts and emotions. And partly because it let me more closely observe anxiety and related mechanisms.
And from there, it was mainly practice. Which kinda sucks, but in the same way that training for a sport sucks. The individual moments are often painful, but I do fine as long as I keep my focus on how I'm gradually improving over time.
A really valuable part was booking regular appointments with a therapist. One of the subtle things about anxiety is that it often naturally leads to avoidance. Deciding to be regularly accountable for my progress kept me from just sweeping it back under the rug.
Other than that, I did a lot of experimenting to see how to keep my general stress and anxiety levels low. Diet, exercise, sleep schedule, and home environment all made important differences for me. With a more chill baseline, the social stuff was easier to deal with.
Another chunk was recognizing how self-reinforcing anxiety can be. When anxiety makes an experience worse, it trains us that the experience is bad, which triggers more anxiety next time. Learning to slowly undo that process was helpful. (That might have come out of Hallowell's Worry, but I no longer recall.)
Meditation was definitely helpful. Partly because a big part is practice in quieting one's thoughts and emotions. And partly because it let me more closely observe anxiety and related mechanisms.
And from there, it was mainly practice. Which kinda sucks, but in the same way that training for a sport sucks. The individual moments are often painful, but I do fine as long as I keep my focus on how I'm gradually improving over time.