ACT and Social Anxiety Disorder

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. First of all I must say that I'm not entirely sure how

this group works, I've never really used yahoo groups before so it's

all new to me.

I live in the UK and am currently using 'Get out of your mind and

into your life' to help me with my Social Anxiety Disorder. I use

that term purely so people can understand what I mean. I've had this

for many years now and tried to use CBT and NLP methods to help. They

did help at times, but only on a day when I 'felt' like using them.

So I decided to give ACT a try.

I would just like some help and advice on how to apply it to social

anxiety. Ive done a lot of the 'defusion' work and also turning

feelings/thoughts into 'external objects'. It's early days for me but

I think my big problem is impatience. I hate feeling socially anxious

so much because it makes it extremely hard to socialise, hence I have

never studied or had a job or many friends. I have missed out on

learning a lot of social skills that most people pick up in their

school years. I'm 22 now. I feel as though my mind is a mess! In some

ways using ACT has made me more confused than before. Also I think

there is a big difference between social anxiety disorder and panic

disorder, which the book often mentions in relation to anxiety.

If anyone suffers from the same problem or has any suggestions to

help I would really appreciate it. I apologise if my post sounds

strange or dumb.