Social Anxiety Groups

What is a Social Anxiety Group?

Social anxiety groups take many forms. The overall purpose of a social anxiety group is to bring sufferers together and help them increase their quality of live through doing that. The typical forms such groups take are self-help groups, social groups and professionally led therapy groups.

Self-help or support groups will usually be run by the sufferers themselves and provide a safe environment where people can come together, discuss personal issues with like-minded people, and work through issues. Self-help groups will nearly always involve a social events outside of the group sessions and this is something particularly important for social anxiety groups. Self-help groups will usually be facilitated or led and members will be asked to adhere to group rules. This helps to ensure that the group stays a safe and supportive environment.

Why start a Group

If you suffer from social anxiety then start a group can bring you multiple benefits. It is understandable that you might feel apprehensive about such a challenge, but starting a group can be fairly simple and can really help you make some positive progress with overcoming your social anxiety. Consider these advantages...

Starting a social anxiety group...

• Can bring you friends who understand.
• Gives you a sense of accomplishment.
• Will gain you respect from the people you like.
• Adds meaning your life and helps build self-esteem through contribution.
• Puts you in touch with other useful resources in your area.
• Provides a safe environment where you can develop socially without outside pressure.
• Will help other people like you in your area.
• Provides you with emotional support when things are tough.
• Offers you a group of people to socialise and do activities with.
• Helps you get the most out of any therapy you are recieving.
• Could lead to you meeting your perfect partner.

These are real benefits that you can gain through starting a group. Some of the people who already attend a group say that being part of one has literally transformed their life and given them the stepping stone they needed to start living.

How to Start Your Group

Starting your group really does not have to be hard. It can be as simple as finding one or two other social anxiety sufferers in your area and setting a time and place. You can then gradually build and evole your group using the informaiton we provide. We encourage the members of start-ups to work together and share out any task that may need to be done. This not only takes the pressure off the founder of the group, but also helps build a sense of community and commitment within the group.

Simply download our Social Anxiety Groups Manual which contains all the information and resources you need to get started and then hold your first meeting. Once you have had your first meeting you can add your group details to our database so that other people can search for it. It is likely that our manual will be revised regularly, so please visit back to make sure you have an up-to-date version.