Social Anxiety can be immobilizing. It can hold us back from participating in group activities and enjoying our life to the fullest. A mild degree of social anxiety is a common phenomenon, all people face some degree of social anxiety in important interviews, public performances, public speaking, acting, singing, playing a sport under pressure etc. A certain amount of adrenaline is known to enhance the performance but too much can also ruin it. This normal body reaction becomes a disease when the body reactions are intense and when the severity interferes with everyday life.
People with social anxiety disorder symptoms often display hypersensitivity to criticism, difficulty being assertive, low self-esteem, and inadequate social skills. Avoidance of speaking in front of groups may lead to work or school difficulties. Most patients with social phobia fear public speaking, while less than half fear meeting new people.
Less common fears include fear of eating, drinking, or writing in public, or of using a public restroom.
Social anxiety is said to be the third most common condition, after depression and alcoholism, recent epidemiologic studies report that social phobia has a lifetime prevalence rate of 13.3 percent and a one-year prevalence rate of 7.9 percent in community samples. Social anxiety disorder was recognised as a psychiatric entity in 1980.
Like most other phobias, social phobias are more common in women. They are more common in young people. Onset of social phobia typically occurs between 11 and 19 years of age. Onset after age 25 is rare . Social phobia is a highly prevalent but often overlooked psychiatric disorder that can cause severe disability in functioning. Fortunately social phobia has shown good response to specific pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy.
Approximately one half of patients with social phobia have comorbid mental, drug or alcohol problems. The disorder increases a patient’s lifetime risk of depression approximately fourfold.
Social phobia is described is described as an intense, irrational and persistent fear of being scrutinized or negatively evaluated by others.
The most commonly noted social anxiety disorder symptoms are:
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Treatment:
Cognitive behavioral therapy, with or without specific antidepressant therapy, is the evidence-based treatment of choice for most patients. Adjunctive use of medicines can be used in patients who need initial symptom relief.
Cognitive and behavioural therapy is known to be effective in adults and there is growing evidence of similar benefit in children and adolescents.
The scheme of this therapy is as follows:
1. Recognize the automatic or irrational thought processes
2. Identify the underlying beliefs
3. Challenge those irrational beliefs
4. Replace those beliefs with suitable alternatives
This can be combined with exposure therapy , where in the patient is gradually exposed to the feared social situation in a controlled environment, gradually the patient gets desensitized to the fear and loses his/her social anxiety.
In some cases Anti-depressants maybe used to get the desired results.
If you’re suffering from social anxiety disorder symptoms and would like to take control of your anxiety without medications, then take a minute and check the best treatments out. It will show you the way:
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