How To Help A Friend In Overcoming Shyness

Shyness is one of those issues that are hard to deal with alone. This is why it is important for shy people to have friends help them in overcoming this issue.

If you know a friend who is at risk or who already have fears in dealing with others, you can help him or her to overcome that. What you can do is to act as a confidante during conversations as often as possible. Since he or she trusts you, you can try to explain to your friend that although the fears of untoward incidents may happen when dealing with others, these don’t take place all the time.

Acting as the confidante

If your friend is in crowd, it would be best if you accompany him or her so your friend can have somebody to turn to once the nervousness gripping his or her senses. If you are in the same social event with a friend who is trying to overcome shyness, here are some of the things that you can do:

- Familiarize yourself about shyness. If you have time, you can do this research by surfing various sites in the Internet. If it is possible for you to research with him or her, it would be better because here, information about shyness and studies or statistics as well as various relaxation techniques is taught to help people understand the shyness itself.

- Make sure that you know the people who are attending a specific social gathering. Knowing details about the people who are attending the party might seem an extra effort for you but you have to do this because your friend will rely on you during the gathering. You can check from party organizer event details and you will know what to tell your friend. The information and your presence will help your friend be more comfortable and relaxed knowing that she or he doesn’t have to worry about anything anymore.

- Keep your friend distracted. Since your friend is shy, it is only natural for him or her to feel nervousness and even physical symptoms such as dizziness, muscle tensions, deep breathing and even vomiting if placed in a crowd that triggers shyness. If you see one or two of these symptoms, you should start distracting her or him by talking to her about things that are light. If you do this, you can veer him or her away from negative thoughts.

- Stop him or her from consuming stimulants. Some of these are taken by people who are extremely shy to calm them down. These stimulants may include sugar, coffee and other drinks that may contain alcohol. Tell your friend that it would be best not to take these since they contain ingredients that may increase the symptoms of anxiety as well as panic attacks.

- Make sure that you both arrive in the gathering early. One of most effective ways of helping a friend in overcoming shyness is getting at the party venue at least an hour before it starts. By doing this, you can buy more time to relax and just enjoy the event. It is best not to go there late because it will only cause a feeling of rush that may trigger anxiety that causes shyness.