Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T09:08:07.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Feeling Anxious Around Other People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2022

Fiona Challacombe
Affiliation:
King's College London
Catherine Green
Affiliation:
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust
Victoria Bream
Affiliation:
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Get access

Summary

Being pregnant and having a new baby attracts lots of attention and usually involves meeting a range of new people from professionals to other parents. This can be difficult if you experience social anxiety; the postnatal period can be a particularly challenging time as fears of being judged for how you are going about things are very common. Furthermore, it is easy to fall into self-criticism and self-judgements that we are not doing things well enough and that other parents are doing things better than we are. This chapter will help you understand the particular processes that keep social anxiety going and will help you develop alternative strategies that you can use to change your experience of social situations. The chapter will also help you understand the difference between high standards and unhelpful perfectionism, and what you can do to live more comfortably in your own skin as a parent and support yourself through this challenging time to become the parent you want to be.

Type
Chapter
Information
Break Free from Maternal Anxiety
A Self-Help Guide for Pregnancy, Birth and the First Postnatal Year
, pp. 148 - 177
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×