Having low confidence and high anxiety is a difficult struggle. A lot of times it can be hard to socialise with people face to face as well as online. Starting a live streaming channel was one of the many steps I have taken to improve my confidence and reduce anxiety in social settings. This may not be the case for everyone but I thought it might be helpful to share some of my personal experiences, as I have had people in the past tell me they’ve wanted to try out streaming or YouTube but felt too anxious to do so.
With everything going on in the world at the moment it is hard for mental health to not take its toll for some. With not much to do around the house, I decided to try out live-streaming a few days a week to see if I could build up some confidence when it comes to making conversation. Socialising is something I have always found difficult, even with my own family, so I started streaming first without a face camera on and only replying to people within the text chat.
Over time, I have managed to stream with face camera and make voice conversation, I’ve interacted with some lovely people and met some other very supportive streamers along the way. Most importantly I have been able to share my passion for games and capture great moments that have happened.
I have found that streaming can be useful for people who like to plan and schedule daily routines or goals, the feeling of achievement after a stream can be a great one. It can also give you a chance to get creative and make interesting schedules, stream art and even emotes if art/graphics is your sort of thing. It can be great experience to have on your CV or to talk about in job interviews as something you have been self-motivated to do.
Of course, I imagine there can be downsides to streaming for mental health also. It may be difficult not to get caught up in feeling competitive, thinking you’ve had a bad stream or maybe some non-friendly people in your chat upset you. However, it is important to stay focused if this is something you love doing. If it does not then feel proud you gave something new a try.
If you’ve been interested in streaming but have doubts then I highly recommend giving it a go and seeing if you enjoy it. Play your favourite games and have fun talking about them with other people. It can be daunting at first, and after many streams, it still is sometimes, but the progress I have made with confidence makes it worth it.
