Episode Details

Rhonda and David address five fascinating questions in today's podcast, including these:

1. "I'm incredibly shy. How do you talk to girls?"
2. How did you get over your fear of vomiting?
3. Do you still use behavioral techniques like Exposure?
4. Should I try to include the E and A of TEAM when trying to crush my negative thoughts on my daily mood log? And how would I do this?
5. Please give us a podcast on how to express anger.

Nandini writes:

I have zero experience dating and talking to girls. I don't know how to even make girl as friend.

Whenever I talk to a girl, the next day I think "How should I talk to her?"

Should I go to her because now she wants me to talk to her?

Which makes me very nervous.

And also. if am talking to a girl I think about when I will have to go to her next time. When I'm doing my work, I think should I go to her, because she works in our office.

Means I don't know how to do that! Can you help?

Rhonda and David respond with some simple advice, but encourage all listeners to use the search function on his website to get lots of great links to helpful material on just about any mental health topic, including flirting, dating, shyness, or just about anything.

In additon, my book, Intimate Connections, could be really helpful to Nandini, as well as my books, When Panic Attacks and The Feeling Good Handbook, that all have extensive sections on anxiety. You can find all of them at my books page (https://feelinggood.com/books/).

In addition, we've recently featured several podcasts on shyness and social anxiety, including:

128: Intense Social Anxiety–I'm Losing Control! What Can I Do?

134: Smashing Shyness: Part 1

135: Smashing Shyness: Part 2

169: More on Social Anxiety–the Case for Vulnerability

142: Performance Anxiety: The Story of Rhonda, Part 1

143: Performance Anxiety: The Conclusion

088: Role-Play Techniques —Feared Fantasy Revisited

2. How did you get over your fear of vomiting?

DB,

I know you probably don't remember me because it's been years since we emailed, but you helped me via your Ask The Guru section of your old website years ago and we occasionally emailed back and forth after that. Which reminds me to once again thank you for your books and how you've dedicated your life to your work. It has made a difference in my life and I would imagine literally millions of others. What a wonderful thing.

I stumbled upon an article about you in the Stanford Magazine from 2013 and learned something I didn't know -- you suffered at one time from a fear of vomiting. I've dealt with that since I was a kid. It's not as severe now as it once was, but I'm wondering what CBT methods might be useful for that particular issue. (No chance I'm taking ipecac syrup!).