Social Anxiety Therapy

Being the third-largest psychological issue in the U.S., the problem of social anxiety has likely affected you directly or someone very close to you. People afflicted with social anxiety, often classified as social phobia, have trouble interacting in social environments. The good news is that many effective treatments can be used. These treatments fall into a group called social anxiety therapy.

The patient with social anxiety often experiences physical symptoms, such as:

• shortness of breath
• chest pains
• sweating and
• nausea

Unfortunately for them, these are often signs of heart attacks. Panic attacks are often mistaken as such, forcing these individuals into a truly awkward social situation where they are indeed the center of uncomfortable attention; the emergency room!

Social Anxiety Therapy Focuses:

Typically, social anxiety therapy focuses on exposing the individual to various degrees of social interactions. The thinking is that with a slow enough exposure to more and more complex social situations, with the guidance and safekeeping of a trained therapist, consumers of social anxiety therapy will be able to build their tolerance to social problems.

With enough exposure, these problems can be controlled or disappear altogether. This form of social anxiety therapy is called exposure treatment and falls under the school of thought known as Cognitive Behavioral Psychology.

Other forms of treatment for social anxiety can be used instead of, or in conjunction with, exposure treatment. Among the most common of these is Psychopharmaceutical Treatment.

This, as you might guess, involves the treatment of social anxiety with drugs such as sedatives and anti-depressants. The thinking, in this case, is that the social component of the affliction can be controlled if either the general anxiety of the individual or the depression of the individual can be addressed.

This makes sense as depression is frequently found with anxiety and is therefore of vital interest to Social Anxiety Treatment.

This, however, is not without controversy. For example, is it because the person is anxious that they are depressed, or is it because they are depressed that they are eager? Knowing what drives what can be an essential part of social anxiety therapy, but it can be tough to tease apart.

Reference Book (I also read this book for my degree purpose. In this book, you will get a few tools for homework. You can solve alone the various psychological problems by using these tools): The Anxiety and Worry Workbook: The Cognitive Behavioral Solution