Social Anxiety Disorder Safety Behaviors
CBT for Anxiety DisordersSomething you said that caught my attention is this idea of drinking. And when you think about the role of drinking, it's human nature for us to do what feels good and avoid what feels bad. And oftentimes with social anxiety, that's obviously the same point that you just made. You said that when I'm drinking, it gives me a sense of relief.
But what happens is that it backfires and leads to more anxiety about what happened that night, why did I do that, oh, I can't even cope, and then what happens is what your brain does is that it associates drinking with high distress. Mhmm. So the next time I feel that way, I have to go back to drinking to feel better, which backfires again and perpetuates that anxiety. We call that a safety behavior. Okay. Like, there are certain things we do and certain things that we take with us called safety signals. Things I have to, like, have on me and things I do to feel less uncomfortable.
It's kinda like drinking before I go out would be a safety behavior. Right? Like ordering food at QDOBA but not making eye contact. Exactly. Would be a safety behavior. Just go on the app. Right. Or, like, going on my phone and checking out. And all of those things make sense.
But the problem with that is that perpetuates the anxiety and I'm not able to able to really cope with it because it gives me the impression that the only way that I can is if I have my signal with me or I engage in this behavior. Does that make sense? Okay. Yeah.