Social anxiety, or social phobia, afflicts many people. About 19.2 million Americans are suffering from social anxiety. Of the various kinds of mental illnesses, social anxiety is the third most common in the United States. Different treatment modalities are being used to beat social anxiety.
Before treatment can be started, you must first know what social anxiety is. A person who has social anxiety experiences excessive and unreasonable fear of social gatherings. More often than not, social anxiety comes from the fear of being scrutinized or judged by other people. People with social anxiety always feel anxiety during social gatherings or may also avoid going to these. What is worse is that a person with social anxiety already has anticipatory anxiety just thinking about the forthcoming event. People with social anxiety do know that what they are feeling is unreasonable but they have no control over it.
Social anxiety is usually provoked by various social events. Examples of these are talking in public, eating or drinking in front of other people, interacting with people, using public toilets, talking on the phone, and others. Fear over these social events usually come from distorted thinking, negative opinion of other people, and false beliefs. How will a doctor make a social anxiety diagnosis?
If symptoms of social anxiety are observed, the doctor will initially conduct an evaluation of a person’s medical history and a physical exam. The doctor will have to rule out the existence of a physical disorder by conducting various laboratory tests.
If no physical illness is found through the laboratory test results, the patient will be referred to a psychologist or psychiatrist. The mental health professional, a psychiatrist or psychologist, can diagnose social anxiety with the help of assessment tools like interviews. Upon diagnosis of social anxiety, the correct treatment strategy for the patient will be prescribed.
Years ago, cognitive-behavior therapy is the best method to beat social anxiety. Cognitive-behavior therapy is about changing a person’s fear into a more rational way of thinking. In this treatment, a person with social anxiety learns how to react differently in social situations and how to stop avoiding them. There are two ways that cognitive-behavior therapy is done: systematic desensitization and real life exposure to situations.
With systematic desensitization, a person imagines the situation that causes anxiety. And then, the person is helped by the therapist to overcome his or her fears. Real life exposure to situations that cause anxiety is also another way. With the therapist’s guidance, the person is able to overcome his or her anxiety during exposure to the social situations.
Different drugs are also prescribed to beat social anxiety. These drugs are tranquilizers, antidepressants, and beta-blockers. The medications are sometimes used with cognitive-behavior therapy to treat the symptoms of social anxiety.
Cognitive-behavior therapy and prescription medications have been tried by many social anxiety sufferers. Unfortunately these treatment methods did not beat social anxiety because only Panic Away is effective in doing so.
Anyone can now get rid of social anxiety for good. Learn more information on how to beat social anxiety through Panic Away.