Stopping Worry and Anxiety of What Others Think Now

Everyday life can get eaten up with the worry about what others are thinking of you, we end up leading lives that are consumed by trying to meet what we think is expected of us financially, socially, emotionally, physically and mentally. This worry can lead to varying levels of anxiety which can enter every aspect of our daily living. Anxiety is basically caused by excess adrenalin released in the body when it feels threatened in some way. The brain releases this adrenalin as a survival technique to give you the energy and focus you need to deal with a situation that your mind deems as a threat.

This release of adrenalin is as a result of evolution, however in our modern day lives the body and mind can use this adrenalin in a negative way, reaffirming false beliefs and creating a self fulfilling prophecy. As we learn we are programmed to interpret a situation as dangerous, but this could be anything from leaving the house to pop to the shops, eating in public, driving on the motorway, speaking in a large group, going in a lift, staying in your home alone or being seen with out make up on.

These situations are everyday occurrences that should not induce such a severe reaction but at some point in the past you would have experienced some sort of negative reaction or feeling to an event that has fuelled an anxious thought process which in turn has led you to fear and worry about what others think of you. What has happened is that in the past you have experienced something that your brain now associates with a negative as adrenalin was released at some point, but, because the levels of adrenalin do not correlate with the level of severity of a situation your body goes into panic and programs the brain to believe this will happen each time it is in this situation.

You might have gone your entire life suffering from anxiety and never realised as the subconscious and conscious mind is such a powerful thing you may have just accepted it as part of your life that you cannot change. But what you must realise is that you can change it no matter how embedded it has become in your life. The worry about what others think about you is a major contributor to anxiety which can manifest in numerous ways:

- Nausea
- Severe tiredness
- Sickness
- Excessive sweating
- Chills
- Palpitations
- Blushing
- Diarrhoea
- Shaking
- Weight loss/gain
- Numbness of body
- Stiffness of joints

The symptoms above are just a snapshot of the things people can experience on a daily basis from an irrational fear of what will happen to them if people think something bad or even good about them. Below is a list of examples of the things people can think leading them to suffer from anxiety and change their life for the worse as a social phobias grow:

- People will think I am useless and stupid if I make a mistake
- To be happy I have to be liked by everyone, even those I don’t know
- If someone disagrees with me it’s because they do not like me and judge me
- The past will come back and get you, if its done it once it will do it again
- If I’m not perfect then I have failed and people won’t like me
- I can only be happy if I am in a relationship or else I have no one
- If I do something that draws attention to myself people will laugh
- I can only be complete and lead a normal life if everyone likes me
- If I don’t do what everyone else does I won’t fit in
- I need to be the approval of others and acceptance to feel good about myself
- I need to be good at everything for people to like me so I won’t try things that I know I can’t do
- I am not as good as anyone else so I have to try and blend in
- I have to sacrifice things because I need to make others happy so they like me

There are an infinite amount of illogical thoughts we experience as we are all different but there are fundamental commonalities that fuel these false beliefs:

- You can only gain value as a human if you are liked by all
- You cannot succeed without the acceptance of others
- You cannot challenge peoples ideas with your own if you want to be liked

It is in our nature as humans to be social beings and from day one of our life we are brought up in ‘packs’ (Our family and close friends) and an extended pack (Society). From this we learn how to belong to a group and ‘fit in’. However, as humans we are also individuals which is proven by how different our minds and bodies work from each other. If you look back into you past there will be a trigger somewhere that has caused you to worry about what others think of you to such an extent your mind takes control over your body and puts it into protection mode but unfortunately it has the opposite effect and irrational fears and thoughts are perpetuated.

What is important here however, is that acknowledgment and understanding of this fact and how the brain is such an amazing tool that we can relearn how to control our minds and bodies and lead a life that is about making ourselves happy which in turn will benefit others unconsciously and more efficiently which is ironic but true. Start making changes to day and get a hold of that anxiety and throw it out the window, stop the worry of what others think of you and lead a life where you are free of this control..