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.
After ruling out the existence of a physical disease, the doctor will now refer the patient to the care of a mental health professional. These mental health professionals will be utilizing assessment tools like interviews in order to diagnose social anxiety. Once social anxiety is diagnosed, the mental health professional will prescribe the appropriate mode of treatment.
Years ago, cognitive-behavior therapy is the number one method to beat social anxiety. This therapy is focused on guiding a person’s thoughts in a more rational direction. This treatment teaches the person other ways to react towards social events and to stop avoiding them. Cognitive-behavior therapy uses systematic desensitization and real life exposure to social events in order to treat a patient.
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.
Another way to beat social anxiety is through prescription medications. These medications are tranquilizers, antidepressants, and beta-blockers. These drugs may be used with cognitive-behavior therapy in order to minimize 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.
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