I need advice... No matter what I do, I keep being attacked by the thought that the people I consider to be my "friends" actually find me annoying and dislike me. I've tried changing these thoughts but it won't get out of my head. The ironic thing is my friends have done nothing to trigger this. I just feel like if I were to disappear no one would care... do you have any advice? It just like everyone has this special person that they can tell anything to but me.. please tag #1313lil. Thank you.
Hey anon,
One of the things I find helpful with my anxiety is to do “reality checks.” This basically means to identify the thought that I have that’s causing the anxiety and checking to see if it’s based on fact or an irrational thought.
For example. when i think people find me annoying, i look at that hard. If people found me annoying, would they still hang out with me? Probably not. If I found someone annoying and disliked them, would I still hang out with them? No, and I don’t know people who would. So is it likely that these people secretly dislike me? No.
It takes practice, and it won’t always change the feeling right away, but changing your thought patterns is really key to managing anxiety.
Best of luck
--roboraptor