Posts Tagged ‘social anxiety disorder’

Effective Types Of Treatment For Social Anxiety Disorder

July 4th, 2010

Before a prescription of anxiety medications is made for a social anxiety disorder, it’s important to understand what this sort of disorder actually is. It is not mere shyness, as some people think. Shyness can usually be mitigated with age, experience and perhaps some coaching in certain skills. But a social anxiety disorder is a debilitating fear of interacting with people and looking foolish or being judged in a negative way. If it results in physical and psychological symptoms that make it hard to function in society, that’s when social anxiety disorder treatments become important.

Some of the standard social anxiety disorder treatments involve various types of medications. For example, a doctor’s first prescription for these social fears is usually one of the drugs from the family of medications known as the SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors). These include antidepressants like Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft or Celexa. They help to gradually alleviate the symptoms of social phobias, and most often don’t produce difficult side effects.

Cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder involves social skills training, where the person learns to use appropriate behaviors in a social situation, which will hopefully decrease their anxiety. Usually, it’s used in conjunction with drugs to help tone down the anxiety responses while the cognitive work is underway.

Given that there is often a traumatic element in the past of someone with these social phobias, it’s not surprising that some social anxiety disorder treatments recommend delving into any potential underlying causes of the disorder. This is often done in conjunction with the other treatments such as the medications. While the external symptoms are being brought under control, the possible root causes are being explored.

Effective treatment may involve many of these elements working together, so the person can gradually face public situations with a degree of confidence and a reduction in anxiety symptoms.

Visit Panic and Anxiety Disorders for information on a variety of treatments for anxiety, including herbal remedies for anxiety.

categories: social anxiety disorder treatment,social anxiety disorder,anxiety disorders,mental health

Overcoming Anxiety And Panic Attacks

June 6th, 2010

You have your hotdogs and buns for the barbeque; the line has been long although there is only one customer between you and the cashier. When a strange sensation begins to creep over you, as your throat begins to tighten as you take a hard swallow. Then your chest begins to tighten and you feel short of breath. You feel your heart take a skip that leaves you feeling as if you want to disappear. Not here, you plead inside, not here.

Your eyes quickly scan your surrounding as you check to see if there is any personal threat. Pins and needles prick at your right shoulder as you become over conscious of the four strangers who have slipped up behind you and the person standing in your way of purchase and freedom from this situation. Your head then begins the slow explosion of fear that now has you a little dizzy as you dread the worse. A panic attack is about to come over you.

You begin to panic even more, as you wonder if this is the big episode that will take you to your knees gasping for breath. Stop right there and begin to focus on the procedures you have learned concerning coping techniques. As your physician has recommended, begin your deep breathing exercises. In through the nose, out through the mouth.

Slowly now, remembering to think relaxing thoughts and again, while inhaling, tell yourself to relax then exhale. However, it seems that you may be feeling very self-conscious of concentrating on breathing and even more stressed than before.

Okay, coping technique 2: Gradual muscle relaxation. Tense both shoulders, hold for 10 seconds, then release. Try it again. No; still no difference. The anxiety is getting worse and the very fact that you are out of coping techniques worsens your panic. If only you were surrounded by your family, or a close friend were beside you so you could feel more confident in dealing with this situation.

A dreaded feeling of losing complete control engulfs your emotions as your body begins to tingle with an uncomfortable sensation as your adrenaline is reacting as it pumps through your body. No one around has any idea of the terror you are experiencing. It is just another day in an annoyingly long service line, awaiting their turn.

You decide the last option of coping is the next step to take and that is to flee the area. You lay your intended purchase on the counter and make a quick exit as the cashier is left standing watching you with a puzzled look on her face. Although you may be embarrassed you have no time for making excuses, you just need to be alone in order to control the anxiety, which is building inside you. You then get into your car and drive away, riding this out all alone. You fear that this episode will ultimately be the one that pushes you past your limits physically and mentally. However, in just ten minutes the attack begins to fade away. You are haunted by the idea that it is just nine am and you cannot help but to wonder if you will be able to make it through the day.

The scenario above may sound very familiar if you suffer from panic or anxiety attacks. Possibly, even in reading it you felt the induction of panic and feeling of anxiety. Take a deep cleansing breath. Keep in mind that there are as many triggers for panic and anxiety as well as body sensations as there are individuals who experience them, they all differ. On the other hand, perhaps you have experienced it while the dentist cleans your teeth or while for the very first time you travel by air and even possibly, you were at home while doing nothing out of the ordinary.

Nevertheless, you should take comfort in knowing that you are not the only one who suffers from panic attacks. An acute sense of impending doom often accompanies a panic attack. You experience a fear of either collapsing in the middle of the check out line, or that you are about to lose your mind in public.

Did you know that in America alone, estimation has it that nearly five percent of the population suffers from one sort of anxiety disorder or another? This means you are not alone at all. For some, inconsistent anxiety attacks are triggered when having to address a crowd. While there are others who suffer from attacks so frequently, that it keeps them homebound. Physicians refer to frequent panic attacks as an anxiety disorder.

The beginning of your recovery starts here. What you will learn is that there is a very good chance you are about to end the cycle of panic attacks in your life. You will learn not only to regain the carefree life you remember once having, but will also gain new confidence in living. Your answer to living free from “panic” or “anxiety attacks” is at hand.

The trick to panic attacks is wanting to have one-the wanting pushes it away. Can you have a panic attack in this very second? No! You know the saying that “what you resist, persists.” Well that saying applies perfectly to fear. If you resist a situation out of fear, the fear around that issue will persist. How do you stop resisting – you move directly into it, into the path of the anxiety, and by doing so it cannot persist.

The heart of this technique is that by trying to have a panic attack you will not be able to have one. If you try to have a panic attack I assure you, you will not be able to trigger an episode. Whether you realize it or not, you have always made a choice to have a panic attack. You make such a choice by thinking that any scenario you are experiencing is out of your control.

You should keep in mind that the racing of your heart or the panic you feel will not cause you harm; you are perfectly safe although you may feel overwhelmed you are safe from harm. It is in your best interest to choose not to have an attack of anxiety.

About the Author: Wendy Brausch runs an anxiety and panic disorder support website. For helpful tips and advice on dealing with panic attack symptoms get her free report Conquer Panic and Anxiety Disorders

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Which Social Anxiety Treatments Work?

April 29th, 2010

Therapy is nearly always recommended for social anxiety sufferers. Cognitive behavior therapy has been proven to work for most people, and that may be used along with other popular types of therapy, such as group therapy and exposure therapy. These types of therapies are based on years of research and studies, and so you can have faith in them.

There is no need to feel nervous, as many people do, about having therapy. You will be under the care of a trained therapist who will never make you do or talk about things that make you too uncomfortable. After just two or three sessions of therapy, most sufferers make a huge amount of progress, so it would be a mistake to dismiss this kind of treatment. Before going to therapy for the first time, it can help to do some research about it on the Internet, as there are a lots of myths surrounding it which are not true.

Many different types of medications can potentially help treat social anxiety. Each treatment has it own advantages as well as disadvantages. The most common treatments are beta blockers, benzodiazepines and monoamine oxidize inhibitors. Beta Blockers are most suitable in the situations where there is a need of mental sharpness because it has no adverse effect on cognitive ability. However, as there is potential to become addicted to any medications then they are not used as a first line of treatment.

Another example of social anxiety treatment is the herbal supplements. Herbal supplements are dismissed by some people because of the lack of evidence that they work, but there is also a lack of evidence that says that they do not work. They cannot do any harm, that is known for sure, so it is an option that is at least worth considering. Sufferers should ask their doctor for advice on herbal supplements are best treating their condition rather than using guesswork based upon what they have read.

Self help strategies, like herbal supplements, are dismissed by some people as being new-age and pointless, but they have worked for enough people to give them some validity, even if there is little medical evidence to back them up. Example strategies include relaxation and self evaluation. You can try deep breathing from the diaphragm for relaxing and anxiety disorders. We all are able to do this but very few of us do so on a daily basis. Again, this alone will not solve the problem, but it will help you make progress in the right direction.

Continue : Overcoming Social Anxiety Or Social Anxiety Support

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Social Anxiety Disorder : It Is Far From Uncommon

April 1st, 2010

Sufferers of social anxiety disorder are aware that their fears are unreasonable but that doesn’t stop them from being excessively anxious. It’s essential that help is sought to overcome this disorder as, left unattended, the symptoms will only worsen. It’s no exaggeration to say that sufferers can only truly live their lives when they have found a way to deal with this issue.

Overcoming social anxiety is not simple to do since it interferes with your daily routine. Those suffering from social anxiety disorder deal with this problem every day. Feeling extreme fear or anxiety can be caused by simple things such as the ringing of the door bell, answering the phone or the idea or going to the mall with other people.

Individuals suffering from social anxiety disorder, otherwise known as social phobia, will do anything possible to stay away from certain social situations that they fear. Some even go to the extremes of avoiding situations where there are other people involved like social events, work meetings and school classes. Why do sufferers do this? Because they don’t want to take a chance, however remote it is, of being embarrassed or humiliated by anyone.

The cause of social anxiety disorder is not yet known. Children who are shy often suffer from the disorder as adults. A person’s upbringing can also be a factor that causes one to experience it – a person with overly critical or overly protective parents are more prone to suffer from social anxiety disorder. It could also be because of abnormal reactions in brain parts that control emotional reactions. Or it could be causes by a combination of the three possible causes.

Whilst the causes of the disorder have not yet been established, good progress has been made with the methods of treating it. Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most successful technique available. Trained therapists will be the ones to administer the therapy. The purpose of this therapy is to replace the negative thoughts that occur with positive ones.

Alternatives to cognitive behavioral therapy include relaxation therapy, exposure therapy and breathing techniques. You can do it as in group or individual sessions. There are also many available books and some self help audios and videos. You can choose from the many titles out there.

Learn More : Improve My Self Esteem Or Social Anxiety Support

categories: social anxiety disorder,social anxiety,anxiety disorder,social phobia,anxiety,mental health