Dealing With Social Anxiety in College

Infographic provided by Mylemarks.com.

Social anxiety can be one of the most challenging things to deal with while being a college student. In college, you have these stereotypes that you are pressured to obtain. Like going out to the bar every night, joining a sorority or having a bunch of friends. These are things that make you a “cool” college student and if you’re not doing these things then you’re not having a fun college experience. There are a lot of stereotypes that you think you’re supposed to follow in college. For example, if you don’t join a sorority or fraternity, you won’t get a good job. If you don’t go out to parties every weekend, then you’re “boring.” For about two years I put an extreme amount of pressure on myself, and it drove me INSANE. I started second-guessing myself and who I was. I started to change myself to fit in. But I’m here to tell you that there isn’t a certain type of college experience you should be having. And you definitely shouldn’t do things that you don’t wanna do just because other people are doing them. You are your own person, and everyone’s lives are different. 

These words are something I’ve had to tell myself occasionally — almost every day to be exact. My social anxiety has made my college experience different from others. It makes things that are easy for people a little bit harder for me. But I choose to not let it hold me back and affect me too much. It’s something that you just have to push through. Sometimes having anxiety causes you to shut people out and prevent yourself from meeting new people and trying new things. It even caused me to skip out on a few classes because of how scared I was to get called on by a teacher. I know these are things some people will never understand, and also something that people will. 

When you have social anxiety you feel like an outsider constantly, and you wish things were different. But trust me, it’s not the end of the world, things will get better with time. And you definitely are NOT alone. There are so many people who are feeling just like you and you just don’t know it yet. This semester, I’ve been committed to overcoming my anxiety and doing things that scare me. That is KEY, doing things that scare you can be a good thing. And once you’ve done it, you feel so much better about yourself. Branch out, join a club, reach out to an old friend and reconnect, try to meet new people. My anxiety always restricted me from going out and meeting people I didn’t know. This semester I promised myself I wouldn’t do that, and so far it’s going really well. If you struggle with social anxiety like me, always remember to push through the bad days, because the good days are around the corner.