Good article as usual. I'd recommend listening to it, the author is really good at reading his articles.

In general, and alluded to by the "rub your nose in it" comment, the cure for social awkwardness and anxiety is to force yourself to do the things you aren't comfortable with. Aversion doesn't help, and any kind of "method" that gets you to more interactions helps... but in the end, it's the act of doing in and of itself that leads to exposure that gets you more comfortable with it.

This isn't meant to be a boomer/Xer dismissive kind of beat, I recognize that it's hard... I've even had some really bad panic attacks before... that said, there is something to be said for, "Just do it."