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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

I have a third approach for you:

3) spend time with friends, drastically reduce screen time, have people around you most of the time, never have dinner alone, etc.

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Nah not at all, spending time alone is crucially important to me for managing anxiety. Solo dinner is great. Being surrounded by people constantly is a way for my anxiety to greatly increase.

It is important to make a distinction between close friends and people you don't know. Also, being alone may feel good but it is not a lasting solution as ultimately humans evolved as social creatures, and you can't rationalize that away.

Try spending e.g. a weekend or a week with close friends or family (if you have a good relationship with them), and see what it does for your anxiety.

The important thing is having a balance. Never being comfortable alone can be an issue just as spending all of your time alone can be.

Yes but my main point is that it's very easy to get stuck in a local optimum without ever realizing that there can be a significant social component to one's anxiety issues that can be easily explored.

The social component of anxiety cuts deeply in both directions

Glad you understand it! ;)

> However, the two things must be mingled and varied, solitude and joining a crowd: the one will make us long for people and the other for ourselves, and each will be a remedy for the other; solitude will cure our distaste for a crowd, and a crowd will cure our boredom with solitude. (Seneca)

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