The following is a list of material I put together for my SA group. SA can be overcome but from personal experience, and I've still got a long way to go, it takes a lot of hard work and perseverance. Some days you just don't want to be bothered, and it's okay to give yourself some slack now and again, but you really do need to keep at it. As the saying goes "it's use it or lose it." Combatting SA takes self discipline, dedication and the cultivation of an open mind. But not so open that...

The following was a talk I gave to my SA group. The source material was a tape from the Attacking Anxiety and Depression series from the Midwest Center by Lucinda Bassett, the book "What To Say When You Talk To Yourself" by Dr Shad Helmstetter and my own experiences.
The concept of Unconditional Self Acceptance is an idea from Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT). Albert Ellis talks about this concept at length in his book "The Myth of Self Esteem".

...

I still didn't know what I wanted to do long term and my goals book held no real answers, but it did give me a couple of techniques such as creating a few affirmations to help me to think more positively about things, and because now I had some concrete experience these affirmations were not just based on wishful thinking and they actually worked to a degree. It also led me to develop short term goals. It got me to think about what I could do over the next 12 months that would make my life better...

I'm going to talk briefly about goal setting and how by clarifying your aims you develop a clear picture of where you want to be and can develop a plan of how to get there. So what's goal setting got to do with social anxiety? Before I answer that question I am just going to talk a little bit about where I was, where I am now and how long it took me to clarify my own aims. Up until four years ago I had basically muddled through life in no particular direction. I took stock of myself at that time...

I've decided to start a blog. For this first entry I'm going to talk about manic depression or bi-polar disorder as it has been renamed. Apparently about 1 in every 100 people suffer from it. The risk of suicide is also 10 to 20 times greater than that of the rest of the general population. On the plus side it's become easier to diagnose and manage.


The jury's still out on what causes it. But there is a general consensus in the medical community that it is genetic in origin....