Social Anxiety

I don’t consider myself an anxious person. I have suffered from anxiety at times in my life, but thanks to therapy I have been able to lead a pretty peaceful life for the last few years.

I consider myself an extroverted introvert. I enjoy meeting new people and the occasional social gathering, but i definitely need my alone time to recharge and clear my head.

I regularly meet with people for work, either new clients, potential clients, or professional referral partners. I rarely have any anxiety about these meetings. 

I don’t have anxiety about going to my kids’ school or the grocery store, although those places use to trigger lots of anxiety before therapy.

But the strangest thing happened earlier this week. Actually, it’s probably not all that strange. In fact, I’m venturing to say that maybe quite a few of you reading this post may have experienced something very similar (it will make me feel better if you have. lol)

Last Wednesday, the pickleball club in my town was hosting a “ladies night” to kick off the summer. It was being hosted at a local park and anyone was welcome. I enjoy pickleball and have been wanting to learn more about the official rules of play. I’ve mainly just hit the ball around with the kids for fun with the pickleball set I got as a gift a year or so ago. I had it on my calendar to go. I told the kids I was going. I got done with my appointment in time to go. I actually drove myself to the park where it was happening and found a place to park. And then I just sat there in my car. I couldn’t bring myself to get out and walk over to the pickleball courts. Why? I was honestly so frustrated with myself. Even in that moment, I was so disappointed in myself that I couldn’t overcome the anxiety and go enjoy myself. 

Where does that anxiety come from? What does it mean? What purpose does it have? And most importantly, how in the heck can I overcome it?! Suggestions welcome 👇🏼




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anniversary of my Dad's diagnosis

Image
Anniversaries help us to remember and acknowledge things in the past. They might not always be happy memories, but I do believe that remembering and reflecting is important. It was a year ago this Memorial Day that I found out my dad had cancer. Three weeks later he was gone.  These pictures were all taken about 2 years ago. We had no idea then that these would be the last memories with Grandpa.  I’ve wanted to write about his passing for some time now, but I just wasn’t ready until now.  His death has been hard for me to process in a lot of ways. I know death is never easy, and cancer can be a horrible way to die, so I don’t fault my dad for his decision. What I do wish in hindsight is that it wasn’t illegal in Idaho to end your own life, in cases of terminal illness. That’s the choice my dad made, rather abruptly in my opinion and like all grieving children I would have given anything to have more time with him. But I think he was afraid. I think he was afraid that he w...
Read more

Day Care

Image
Jenica is going to daycare for the first time this afternoon. I think I'm having a much harder time with it than she will. The lady that will be watching her one day a week also watches my friend Brandi's son, so Jenica will get to play with Judah while she's there. There are also a few other kids that come on Thursday afternoons so I'm sure she will have lots of fun. I know I can't have the best of both worlds (stay at home mom and career woman), it's just hard to have to leave my baby girl with someone who doesn't love her like I do. It's times like these when I wish I didn't live so far away from my family, so Jenica could just spend an afternoon with her Grammy or her cousin Kayla instead of having to go to a strangers house. Rob and I have weighed the pro's and con's and feel like a little time with other kids will actually be good for Jenica right now and will allow me to focus on work with out worrying about what Jenica could be gettin...
Read more