Speaker 1: Welcome to the Therapy for a Black Girls podcasts, a
Speaker 1: weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the
Speaker 1: small decisions we can make to become the best possible
Speaker 1: versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr Joy Hard and Bradford,
Speaker 1: a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. To get more information,
Speaker 1: visit the website at Therapy for Black Girls dot com.
Speaker 1: And while I hope you love listening to and learning
Speaker 1: from the podcast, it is not meant to be a
Speaker 1: substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining me for session sixty four
Speaker 1: of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. If you're following
Speaker 1: us on social media, then you probably have already seen this.
Speaker 1: But July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, and we're
Speaker 1: sharing lots of information and resources across social media and
Speaker 1: in our weekly news letter to continue this very important conversation.
Speaker 1: We're currently in day four of the Mental Wellness Challenge,
Speaker 1: so each day a question is posted across social media
Speaker 1: that helps you to think about all the small components
Speaker 1: that go into us being well, so definitely check those
Speaker 1: out and participate. And we just released the first video
Speaker 1: in our Black Girls Do Therapy campaign. These videos are
Speaker 1: helping to change the idea that people who use therapy
Speaker 1: look a certain way or discuss a certain thing. You
Speaker 1: can also find that video on all of our social
Speaker 1: media channels, and a new video will be released each week.
Speaker 1: This month. Not only is July Minority Mental Health Month,
Speaker 1: it's also peak summer and that likely means lots of
Speaker 1: social events and gatherings. This may be incredibly exciting for
Speaker 1: many people, but if you're someone who struggles with social anxiety,
Speaker 1: it's probably dreadful. Social anxiety can look a little different
Speaker 1: for everyone, but it's usually an intense fear of participating
Speaker 1: in social situations for fear of being judged or evaluated
Speaker 1: by others. People who struggle with social anxiety may struggle
Speaker 1: with things like making small talk, though many of us
Speaker 1: I know don't like small talk, making a phone call,
Speaker 1: speaking in public, are going out to eat alone. The
Speaker 1: anxiety often feels so intense that social situations are often
Speaker 1: avoided altogether. Some of the key characteristics of social anxiety
Speaker 1: disorder include a significant and persistent fear of social or
Speaker 1: performance situations, with an intense fear of embarrassment or humiliation,
Speaker 1: physical symptoms of a panic attack, so things like shortness
Speaker 1: of breath, sweating, increased heart rate, shaky hands. You recognize
Speaker 1: that the fear is unreasonable, but you just can't seem
Speaker 1: to stop it, and these symptoms should have persisted for
Speaker 1: at least six months. If this is something you struggle with,
Speaker 1: here are some strategies that you can try to help
Speaker 1: manage your symptoms. Number one, you can work with your
Speaker 1: therapist to make an anxiety hierarchy. The idea behind this
Speaker 1: is that you gradually work through the things that make
Speaker 1: you least anxious about a situation to the things that
Speaker 1: make you most anxious. For example, let's say you have
Speaker 1: lots of anxiety around going to cook outs with friends.
Speaker 1: Some things at the bottom of the hierarchy might be
Speaker 1: getting the text that informs you that there's a cookout,
Speaker 1: or figuring out what you're going to wear to the cookout.
Speaker 1: Things that might be closer to the top of the
Speaker 1: hierarchy might be into the actual cookout, are having a
Speaker 1: conversation with a stranger at the cookout. You would work
Speaker 1: with your therapists at each step of the hierarchy to
Speaker 1: develop strategies to manage your anxiety until you feel less
Speaker 1: anxious about doing the thing at the top of the hierarchy. Now,
Speaker 1: this is not a quick process. So it may sound like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I can just do this thing and in a week
Speaker 1: I'll have worked in the hierarchy. It usually takes a
Speaker 1: little longer because you don't want to rush the process.
Speaker 1: A lot of times, what happens with social anxiety is
Speaker 1: that people try to go straight to the thing that
Speaker 1: makes them most anxious, and then, of course that ends
Speaker 1: up in failure, and then you don't want to try
Speaker 1: it again. So the whole idea is working through these
Speaker 1: steps gradually. A second thing that you can try to
Speaker 1: help manage the social anxiety is to challenge the negative thoughts. So,
Speaker 1: if you're anxious about something like giving a big presentation
Speaker 1: at work, a thought that might be driving this anxiety
Speaker 1: is I'll mess this all up and people will know
Speaker 1: that I'm a failure. So one way that you can
Speaker 1: challenge these thoughts would be to check your receipts. What
Speaker 1: evidence do you have for believing any of this? Does
Speaker 1: your previous work suggest that you've been a failure? Do
Speaker 1: you tend to mess up work regularly? My guess is
Speaker 1: that the answer to any of these questions is no,
Speaker 1: So chances are that won't happen this time either, And
Speaker 1: sometimes you have to repeat this exercise over and over
Speaker 1: before you actually can begin to believe um and refute
Speaker 1: that negative thought. A third thing that you can try
Speaker 1: to help manage social anxiety is to find low risk
Speaker 1: ways to be more social. So you could do something
Speaker 1: like participate in a therapy group. That would be a
Speaker 1: really good option for allowing you to try out some
Speaker 1: new behaviors in a very safe environment. Even participating actively
Speaker 1: in an online space like the Thrive Tribe might allow
Speaker 1: you to try out some new behaviors. You might also
Speaker 1: try something like improv classes. Group fitness classes are group
Speaker 1: volunteer effort. And then the fourth thing that you may
Speaker 1: try to manage your social anxiety is to have a
Speaker 1: consultation with a psychiatrist or another medical professional who prescribes,
Speaker 1: because they can give you some good information about whether
Speaker 1: medication might be a good option to help you manage
Speaker 1: your symptoms. I know we talked about this a lot
Speaker 1: in session thirty eight with Dr Hodge, all about slaying
Speaker 1: your anxiety, So if you have not checked out that episode,
Speaker 1: then I definitely encourage you to do so. But we
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that one of the most important
Speaker 1: parts of developing a strategy for managing anxiety is to
Speaker 1: get away from avoiding the thing that makes us anxious.
Speaker 1: So you want to not avoid anxiety tricks you into
Speaker 1: believing that this thing is big and scary and you should,
Speaker 1: of course stay away from it, and then you do so.
Speaker 1: You never learned the skills to realize that this thing
Speaker 1: really isn't that big and scary. So whatever way you
Speaker 1: choose to work through your anxiety, make sure that a
Speaker 1: large part of it is going towards the thing that
Speaker 1: makes you anxious and not away from it. If you've
Speaker 1: had experience developing a strategy that has helped you to
Speaker 1: manage your social anxiety, we want to hear all about it,
Speaker 1: so please share that with us. You can use the
Speaker 1: hashtag tb G in session and share it with us
Speaker 1: on social media. And like I mentioned, if you want
Speaker 1: to practice some different ways of being in social situations,
Speaker 1: come on over and join us in the Thrive tribe.
Speaker 1: You can request to join at Therapy for Black Girls
Speaker 1: dot com slash tribe, and do remember that there are
Speaker 1: three questions that you need to answer before you are
Speaker 1: entered into the group, and if you're looking for a
Speaker 1: therapist in your area, make sure to visit the directory
Speaker 1: at Therapy for black Girls dot com slash directory. Thank
Speaker 1: you all so much for joining me again this week,
Speaker 1: and I look forward to continue in this conversation with
Speaker 1: you all real soon. Take care, doctor I doctor actor
Speaker 1: actor actor actor