"Social Anxiety and Low Mood"

I felt in a constant low mood, wasn't able to go out without feeling sick or overthinking that something bad was going to happen. When I had to go out, all I was thinking of was if people were looking and judging me. I would be fidgety and feeling hot whenever I was close to somebody, mainly strangers, or in a crowd, or if I was presenting in front of people. This feeling peaked as lockdown ended and was unbearable to deal with as I was going back to work, college, and more social events.

I self referred myself to Inclusion Thurrock a couple of months ago, I worked with a trainee therapist and she was so understanding and made me feel at ease even in our first session. She was a great listener and knew exactly what to suggest or question to aid me to get to where I wanted. I had my therapy every week. The sessions included talking about how I feel, discovering why I felt this way and setting goals or challenges I wanted to achieve before the next session. My therapist would send me homework such as make a journal, tracking how I feel, how I think my set challenge will go and how it really went etc, or sent me documents to read through after the session of the things we discussed. She even done a "having a conversation with a stranger" experiment which was my worst nightmare at the time. After this, she sent me feedback from the stranger and we watched a recording of the experiment and I was able to realise I was just overthinking and making the situation worse for me because what I thought and what others thought were complete opposite things.

We continued to challenge myself, like going for a drive by myself, going to the gym by myself, going for a Christmas work do with 30+ people I barely know. This all helped massively.

I now can confidently say my social anxiety has gone. I feel happier, healthier and more confident in myself. I know how to deal with my nerves and worries if they do appear again.

Overall I've had a great experience!