YouTube Video on Social Anxiety

[JamieSA]

Hi all,

I suffered terribly from social anxiety when I was younger, and through a lot of self work and therapy I feel I'm now free of it. I still get anxious in certain situations but I now can cope and don't really see it as a problem.

Anyway I was chatting to someone online who's a sufferer, and I suggested to them looking online for help. Out of curiosity I had a look at youtube and searched for social anxiety videos and, frankly, found the quality pretty rubbish. Lots of 20 somethings telling you 'not to worry about what other people think'. As if we didn't already know that!

So I decided to make a video about it, based on all the things I learned through therapy and reading. The stuff that actually worked for me. It's not perfect as I'm pretty new to video editing and animation but thought I'd share it with you guys. It's about 25 mins long and I've tried to include as much information as possible, actual workable useful information. Any feedback appreciated and if you guys think I'm on the right track I might make more content, so let me know what you think!

https://youtu.be/l4NIWhP6_C8

[Schmosby]

Nice video, thanks.

Yes I think if you feel you have more to cover, it would be worth making more in this style.

[anewyear]

Great format and you've got a very calming voice that plays well to presentation. I think you'd benefit by breaking this down to 2 or 3 videos rather than 1 though as 25 mins is quite long. I'm currently going through some linuxacademy AWS videos and these are typically about 8 mins each which works well, for me anyway.
I've gotta ask.. what's the tool you use to create these?

[JamieSA]

Thanks for your replies guys. anewyear - Yes I agree, I should have broken it down to 4 or 5 videos which would have made it easier to digest. Lesson learned. To answer your question, there's a product called videoscribe and it's pretty easy to use. There's a free 7 day trial available for it.

[JamieSA]

Hi Change, thanks for your feedback, glad you liked it.

Yes, most of the content is based on CBT. I did CBT a while back and also I took much of the content from a number of books I have on SA. It's really important to do the practical exercises in the video, I think too much advice is based on how you should change your attitudes, but you really need to go out in the real world and test your beliefs.

My background is in IT. Recently I've developed an interest in graphics and animation. I'm going to produce some more videos in the future on similar issues, so stay tuned!

Oh, and I'll make them shorter in future!

[JamieSA]

Oh and I should add I also have a psychology degree and have taken some counselling courses, and done some voluntary work in mental health. And as I said above, I've suffered from SA myself so I do think I know a little bit about what I'm talking about!

[JamieSA]

Yes I do still work in IT. I'd love to do more creative work but I think I'm a little too old to break into the industry, which is what I love about youtube - anyone can do it!

When you say you haven't made the progress you'd hoped, may I ask what you've tried, what things you've done to help yourself. Also can I ask how old you are?

[JamieSA]

I'm sorry to hear that, have you tried seeking help via therapies or medical help?

I asked your age because I've noticed that as I've got older the SA subsided. I think it's a combination of working on myself and the fact that as you get older you get a more realistic view of the world.

I was careful to add at the end of the video that self help doesn't work for everyone, sometimes therapy or certain drugs can help. I know the temptation is to say 'this worked for me so it should work for you', and that's not always the case.

[JamieSA]

You're welcome. Just remember that when you do take that step, they will have seen people with much worse SA than you - some people wouldn't even dare put their views across on the internet for fear of rejection. Good luck.