As the covid-19 vaccines are being rolled out, more people will start getting out of their homes, and start going to school, college, offices, parties, dinners and social occasions.
However, after operating in the virtual world for so long, behaviour experts say that many people will suffer from social anxiety when they start functioning offline. “We will experience a lot of awkwardness because our icebreaking communication patterns, like the hand shake, a warm hug, patting someone are no longer advisable.
So, when we meet someone, we don’t actually know how to greet them,” says Priyanka MB, a clinical psychologist and founder of Inspiron, a psychological wellbeing centre.
For someone with social anxiety, the fear can stem with just five people around. But there are ways to combat this with four Cs…
Fardeen Rafique
Fardeen follows an eclectic approach and has additional training in CBT, behavior therapy, psychodynamic techniques as well as person centred therapy. She also centres her practice around positive psychology, relationship counselling, and child/adolescent psychology, with a further focus on stress, anxiety and anger management.
