A Way Out of Social Anxiety: Volunteering and Acts of Kindness
As a socially anxious introvert, I can attest（证明）to the benefits of serving others through volunteering in my community.
A volunteer job doesn't need to require stepping into a busy room full of 100 people at a school or hospital. This kind of work is much more suitable and agreeable for introverts.
When I help elders or people with disabilities who are more isolated and lonelier than I am, I feel my nervousness and self-consciousness disappear. My social awkwardness loses its grip on me when I'm focused on helping someone else rather than myself or my social performance. Unlike showing up at a job interview, business meeting, or speaking engagement, working as a volunteer with people in need takes the spotlight away from being measured or judged.
Social scientists have an apt name for stressful social situations where we need to perform and would likely be judged or evaluated. The "social-evaluative threat" is particularly threatening for people with social anxiety as stress hormones rapidly increase. Any time we are in evaluative situations where we are judged by others, we face this social-evaluative threat and endure a sudden rush of stress hormones that increase anxiety. Yet when we are in situations where we are offering casual acts of kindness or nurturing others we tend to feel less threatened or judged by others. Helping others and sharing simple acts of kindness does not pose such a social-evaluative threat, but instead, calms and soothes us. Neuroscientists have studied the warm glow of doing good that makes us feel good.
"Kindness may help socially anxious people," says Dr. Lynn Alden, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. She found that acts of kindness may help to counter the socially anxious person's fear of negative evaluation by promoting more positive perceptions and expectations of how other people will respond.
A. Some people are naturally reserved while others are rather outgoing.
B. In social anxiety disorder, fear and anxiety lead to avoidance which can disrupt our life.
C. Indeed, my own act of kindness has always been a sure bet to bring me out of my shell.
D. Instead, my volunteer service consists of quiet one-on-one visits with isolated older adults.
E. When I am giving my free time to help others, I feel truly liberated in my mission to serve.
F. High-performance events such as public speaking or job interviews can be really unbearable.
G. She and her colleagues conducted a study with 115 undergraduate students who had reported high levels of social anxiety.
