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Is there anything that might be helpful for social anxiety/​shyness/​underconfidence? I feel like this is something that affects EAs and can hold people back in making high impact career, advocacy, donation etc decisions-due to the fear that they might be perceived as weird to non-EAs.

I’ve found many of Julia Wise’s posts to be useful for pushing against “maximize ONLY EA THINGS” tendencies in my life, in particular:

• Cheerfully—a post about how, even if you agree with the younger Julia’s statement that “my happiness is not the point”, you need to find a way to relate to your future as more than an obligation

• You have more than one goal, and that’s fine—trying to abandon the feeling that “the harsh light of cost-effectiveness” should be turned on everything you do (a somewhat similar mood is expressed in Scott Alexander’s post Nobody is perfect, everything is commensurable but I found Julia’s post to be more closely targeted at my emotional motivations)

• Burnout and self-care—lessons on sustainable, bounded generosity drawing on Julia’s time as a social worker

I would also recommend browsing the posts that have been upvoted under the effective altruism lifestyle and self-care tags.

Lynette Bye’s post on Resources On Mental Health And Finding A Therapist, which you link in the first footnote, also includes links out to several resources:

Among effective altruists, there’s a particular pattern of mental health problems related to feeling guilty about not doing enough to help the world: feeling guilty setting personal boundaries, or worrying that you’re not smart enough to make a difference, or thinking that what you’re doing is good but just not “good enough” to matter. Desperation Hamster Wheels is a great description of one EA’s experience with this, Helen Toner’s sustainable motivation talk is good, and the Replacing Guilt series on Minding Our Way seems to be particularly valuable in helping find a healthy balance to these thoughts so that you actually make progress toward your goals.

If you want more resources, Scott Alexander’s new psychiatry practice has a growing database of mental-health-related resources. Ewelina Tur, an EA therapist, has a list of mental health resources here, including workbooks, mental health apps, and audiobooks. The EA Mental Health Navigator website has a list of virtual mental health resources here.