Social Anxiety Disorder Treatment

Social anxiety disorder usually first appears in late childhood, but it can occur at any time in life. As a psychiatric disorder, it shouldn’t be confused with “social anxiety,” which is merely a symptom of the overall disorder. Social anxiety disorder is defined as the experience of such social anxiety symptoms for a prolonged period of time, and often drastically disproportionate the situations that trigger them.

Social anxiety disorder is categorized as a phobia. A phobia is when someone experiences a severe and unreasonable anxious reaction to particular inducers. There are three main varieties of phobias. “Agoraphobia” is the fear of public spaces that may be difficult to escape from. It often leaves a person feeling uncomfortably vulnerable when left “exposed” to the world, and as a result, many people with agoraphobia tend to remain in their house, or within an acceptable frame of boundaries. “Specific phobia” is a fear attached to a particular object, situation, or person. “Social anxiety disorder” entails the fear of social and performance situations.

Stages of Social Anxiety Disorder Treatment

People seeking help for social anxiety disorder are encouraged to do so as early as possible. Although the disorder may not seem too imposing in its initial stages, it is capable of rapidly escalating into a severely unhealthy condition. The avoidance behaviors that stem from social anxiety disorder tend to validate themselves, albeit in a skewed manner. If someone experiences social anxiety effects at work, for example, avoidance behavior dictates that they simply skip work. In this situation, the resulting absence of unpleasant social anxiety symptoms reinforces the avoidance behavior, which is then subconsciously regarded as acceptable. However, such actions only serve to promote increased avoidance behavior, and can escalate into condition like agoraphobia, which, at its most extreme, can prevent an individual from leaving their house at all, or even a specific room of the house.

Because of this possibility, many people find that the most beneficial methods of social anxiety disorder treatment are those with some kind of social components themselves. Psychotherapy, especially group therapy, is considered effective because it keeps the patient in a social situation, but one “safe” and controlled enough not to trigger his disorder. By keeping patients semi-socialized, these treatments prevent the disorder from growing more severe, as it is typically strengthened in the presence of self-validating avoidance behaviors.