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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Therapy for a Black Girls podcasts, a

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Speaker 1: weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the

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Speaker 1: small decisions we can make to become the best possible

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Speaker 1: versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr Joy Hard and Bradford,

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Speaker 1: a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. To get more information,

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Speaker 1: visit the website at Therapy for Black Girls dot com.

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Speaker 1: And while I hope you love listening to and learning

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Speaker 1: from the podcast, it is not meant to be a

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Speaker 1: substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all,

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Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining me for session sixty four

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Speaker 1: of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. If you're following

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Speaker 1: us on social media, then you probably have already seen this.

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Speaker 1: But July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, and we're

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Speaker 1: sharing lots of information and resources across social media and

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Speaker 1: in our weekly news letter to continue this very important conversation.

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Speaker 1: We're currently in day four of the Mental Wellness Challenge,

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Speaker 1: so each day a question is posted across social media

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Speaker 1: that helps you to think about all the small components

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Speaker 1: that go into us being well, so definitely check those

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Speaker 1: out and participate. And we just released the first video

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Speaker 1: in our Black Girls Do Therapy campaign. These videos are

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Speaker 1: helping to change the idea that people who use therapy

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Speaker 1: look a certain way or discuss a certain thing. You

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Speaker 1: can also find that video on all of our social

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Speaker 1: media channels, and a new video will be released each week.

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Speaker 1: This month. Not only is July Minority Mental Health Month,

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Speaker 1: it's also peak summer and that likely means lots of

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Speaker 1: social events and gatherings. This may be incredibly exciting for

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Speaker 1: many people, but if you're someone who struggles with social anxiety,

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Speaker 1: it's probably dreadful. Social anxiety can look a little different

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Speaker 1: for everyone, but it's usually an intense fear of participating

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Speaker 1: in social situations for fear of being judged or evaluated

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Speaker 1: by others. People who struggle with social anxiety may struggle

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Speaker 1: with things like making small talk, though many of us

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Speaker 1: I know don't like small talk, making a phone call,

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Speaker 1: speaking in public, are going out to eat alone. The

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Speaker 1: anxiety often feels so intense that social situations are often

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Speaker 1: avoided altogether. Some of the key characteristics of social anxiety

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Speaker 1: disorder include a significant and persistent fear of social or

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Speaker 1: performance situations, with an intense fear of embarrassment or humiliation,

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Speaker 1: physical symptoms of a panic attack, so things like shortness

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Speaker 1: of breath, sweating, increased heart rate, shaky hands. You recognize

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Speaker 1: that the fear is unreasonable, but you just can't seem

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Speaker 1: to stop it, and these symptoms should have persisted for

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Speaker 1: at least six months. If this is something you struggle with,

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Speaker 1: here are some strategies that you can try to help

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Speaker 1: manage your symptoms. Number one, you can work with your

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Speaker 1: therapist to make an anxiety hierarchy. The idea behind this

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Speaker 1: is that you gradually work through the things that make

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Speaker 1: you least anxious about a situation to the things that

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Speaker 1: make you most anxious. For example, let's say you have

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Speaker 1: lots of anxiety around going to cook outs with friends.

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Speaker 1: Some things at the bottom of the hierarchy might be

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Speaker 1: getting the text that informs you that there's a cookout,

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Speaker 1: or figuring out what you're going to wear to the cookout.

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Speaker 1: Things that might be closer to the top of the

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Speaker 1: hierarchy might be into the actual cookout, are having a

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Speaker 1: conversation with a stranger at the cookout. You would work

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Speaker 1: with your therapists at each step of the hierarchy to

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Speaker 1: develop strategies to manage your anxiety until you feel less

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Speaker 1: anxious about doing the thing at the top of the hierarchy. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is not a quick process. So it may sound like, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I can just do this thing and in a week

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Speaker 1: I'll have worked in the hierarchy. It usually takes a

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Speaker 1: little longer because you don't want to rush the process.

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Speaker 1: A lot of times, what happens with social anxiety is

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Speaker 1: that people try to go straight to the thing that

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Speaker 1: makes them most anxious, and then, of course that ends

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Speaker 1: up in failure, and then you don't want to try

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Speaker 1: it again. So the whole idea is working through these

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Speaker 1: steps gradually. A second thing that you can try to

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Speaker 1: help manage the social anxiety is to challenge the negative thoughts. So,

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Speaker 1: if you're anxious about something like giving a big presentation

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Speaker 1: at work, a thought that might be driving this anxiety

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Speaker 1: is I'll mess this all up and people will know

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Speaker 1: that I'm a failure. So one way that you can

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Speaker 1: challenge these thoughts would be to check your receipts. What

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Speaker 1: evidence do you have for believing any of this? Does

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Speaker 1: your previous work suggest that you've been a failure? Do

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Speaker 1: you tend to mess up work regularly? My guess is

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Speaker 1: that the answer to any of these questions is no,

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Speaker 1: So chances are that won't happen this time either, And

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Speaker 1: sometimes you have to repeat this exercise over and over

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Speaker 1: before you actually can begin to believe um and refute

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Speaker 1: that negative thought. A third thing that you can try

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Speaker 1: to help manage social anxiety is to find low risk

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Speaker 1: ways to be more social. So you could do something

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Speaker 1: like participate in a therapy group. That would be a

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Speaker 1: really good option for allowing you to try out some

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Speaker 1: new behaviors in a very safe environment. Even participating actively

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Speaker 1: in an online space like the Thrive Tribe might allow

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Speaker 1: you to try out some new behaviors. You might also

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Speaker 1: try something like improv classes. Group fitness classes are group

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Speaker 1: volunteer effort. And then the fourth thing that you may

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Speaker 1: try to manage your social anxiety is to have a

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Speaker 1: consultation with a psychiatrist or another medical professional who prescribes,

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Speaker 1: because they can give you some good information about whether

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Speaker 1: medication might be a good option to help you manage

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Speaker 1: your symptoms. I know we talked about this a lot

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Speaker 1: in session thirty eight with Dr Hodge, all about slaying

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Speaker 1: your anxiety, So if you have not checked out that episode,

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Speaker 1: then I definitely encourage you to do so. But we

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Speaker 1: talked about the fact that one of the most important

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Speaker 1: parts of developing a strategy for managing anxiety is to

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Speaker 1: get away from avoiding the thing that makes us anxious.

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Speaker 1: So you want to not avoid anxiety tricks you into

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Speaker 1: believing that this thing is big and scary and you should,

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Speaker 1: of course stay away from it, and then you do so.

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Speaker 1: You never learned the skills to realize that this thing

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Speaker 1: really isn't that big and scary. So whatever way you

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Speaker 1: choose to work through your anxiety, make sure that a

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Speaker 1: large part of it is going towards the thing that

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Speaker 1: makes you anxious and not away from it. If you've

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Speaker 1: had experience developing a strategy that has helped you to

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Speaker 1: manage your social anxiety, we want to hear all about it,

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Speaker 1: so please share that with us. You can use the

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Speaker 1: hashtag tb G in session and share it with us

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Speaker 1: on social media. And like I mentioned, if you want

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Speaker 1: to practice some different ways of being in social situations,

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Speaker 1: come on over and join us in the Thrive tribe.

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Speaker 1: You can request to join at Therapy for Black Girls

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Speaker 1: dot com slash tribe, and do remember that there are

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Speaker 1: three questions that you need to answer before you are

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Speaker 1: entered into the group, and if you're looking for a

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Speaker 1: therapist in your area, make sure to visit the directory

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Speaker 1: at Therapy for black Girls dot com slash directory. Thank

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Speaker 1: you all so much for joining me again this week,

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Speaker 1: and I look forward to continue in this conversation with

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Speaker 1: you all real soon. Take care, doctor I doctor actor

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Speaker 1: actor actor actor