Written by: Abbey Riendeau, LMHC
We know that humans are social creatures and need socialization with others, yet many individuals find themselves spending less and less time with others, impacting their social wellness. For some, this decrease in socialization may be a side effect of working from home and not prioritizing social interaction. For others, their experience of social decline may be due to anxiety.
What is social wellness?
Social wellness includes our current relationships, social interactions with others, and our relationships with our communities and larger social structures. Social structure refers to societies within which human beings interact and live together. Social wellness also encompasses the ability to balance the needs of the relationships in various parts of your life and your own needs. Social wellness encourages the fostering of genuine connections with others and developing a relationship with the community. In short, an individual with good social wellness will be skilled in building and maintaining healthy, nurturing, and supportive relationships with others and positive interactions with the community. They would feel connected to their community as well as experiencing quality relationships with individual people.
Why is social wellness important?
Humans are social beings and research has shown that we generally have a better overall sense of wellbeing when our relationships are healthy, genuine, and supportive. Consider your own experiences– how do you feel during times of conflict with a friend or partner versus when there is no conflict in the relationship? Additionally, our relationships can influence your health habits and behaviors, for better or for worse! Because of this, it’s important to not only work on your own social wellness but to consider how the social wellness of the individuals you spend time with may impact your own health.
By building healthy relationships with others, you create a social network to increase your confidence in social skills by having a safe environment to learn. Surrounding yourself with a positive and healthy support network increases your self-esteem and healthy habits, enabling you to create boundaries. This confidence helps to reduce stress and improve emotional wellbeing. Social wellness is associated with higher levels of resilience as individuals feel confident in their own abilities as well as supported in their relationships with others.
What is social anxiety?
Individuals with social anxiety have a significant fear of being judged or evaluated by others, which may include feeling self-conscious in everyday social situations and/or avoiding meeting new people. For those who endure social anxiety, it is often experienced long-term and impacts areas of their life, such as completing tasks, talking to people at work or school, or attending work/school. Social anxiety can also include fears of public speaking, dating, job interviews, answering questions in school, or talking to a server at a restaurant. Many people experience anxiety when accomplishing these social activities, but for those with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), symptoms are more severe and debilitating. Individuals with SAD may worry about a situation for weeks prior to it happening or they may avoid anxiety-provoking situations all together. They will also experience negative impacts due to symptoms of the disorder, such as failing classes, avoiding important meetings, or being unable to complete required tasks at work.
How does it impact your social wellness?
There are many ways in which social anxiety may impact your social wellness. First, social wellness requires an individual to have genuine connections with others. Social anxiety may impact your willingness to talk to people you don’t know or your comfortableness with group activities or events, therefore limiting your opportunities to build new relationships. In addition to making it difficult to build relationships, it may also be difficult to maintain friendships with social anxiety. It may cause you to isolate yourself from friends or struggle to interact with them when you do go out. It can affect your self-esteem and therefore how you carry yourself around others. These side effects of SAD may create barriers to maintaining and building relationships. Often the experience of social anxiety is so strong that it can be challenging for those with SAD to see the potential benefits of social interactions and improving their social wellness.
What can you do?
For individuals suffering from SAD, seek therapy with an experienced provider. CBT, ACT, and Exposure Therapy are therapy modalities that may be helpful in the treatment of your symptoms. The experience of SAD can be very debilitating and isolating– please seek support.
For those who experience mild social anxiety, consider these tips:
Avoid avoiding– when you give in to avoidance, you only add to the anxiety. Work through anxiety-provoking situations utilizing coping skills while experiencing the feelings.
Learn to sit with the feelings that arise in anxiety-provoking situations. Observe and notice your experience and stay with it until the anxiety eases. Once the anxiety eases, you can step out of the anxiety-provoking situation. Repeat this cycle, with the goal of increasing the amount of time spent in the anxiety-provoking situation.
Challenge unrealistic, unhelpful, negative thoughts that come to mind.
Work to decrease safety behaviors, such as fiddling with objects, avoiding eye contact, using substances, etc. as you become more confident in social situations.
For those who would like to improve their social wellness, consider the following questions and tips:
Do you prioritize visiting with friends and family?
Do you express your appreciation and affection for the people who support you?
Are your relationships positive, enriching, and authentic?
Do you make an effort to interact with a variety of individuals from a diverse background, experiences, culture, and beliefs?
Keep in contact with friends, put in effort to have regular discussions.
Spend quality time with loved ones and express your affection frequently.
Engage in volunteer work within your community.
Join a local group activity, club, or committee.
Celebrate your traditions and culture via participation in cultural events.
Participate in and support community events and programs.
Express gratitude to both loved ones and strangers.
Intentionally engage in random acts of kindness.
Citation:
Andersone, E. (2021, June 2). What is social anxiety and how can I manage its symptoms? Foothold. https://www.myfoothold.org/blog/what-is-social-anxiety-how-can-i-manage-symptoms/
National Institute of Mental Health. (2022). Social Anxiety Disorder: More Than Just Shyness. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/social-anxiety-disorder-more-than-just-shyness#:~:text=Social%20anxiety%20disorder%20is%20an
Ramirez-Duran, D. (2021, May 2). What Is Social Wellbeing? 12 Activities for Positive Relationships. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/social-wellbeing/
What is Social Wellbeing | Student Wellbeing. (n.d.). Www.bu.edu. https://www.bu.edu/studentwellbeing/what-is-wellbeing/social-wellbeing/
Why is Social Wellness Important? | Student Life | University of Nebraska Omaha. (n.d.). Www.unomaha.edu. https://www.unomaha.edu/student-life/presidents-wellness-committee/social-wellness.php#:~:text=Social%20wellness%20refers%20to%20the