Social anxiety disorder (SAD), or social phobia, primarily impairs the individual’s ability to function in social situations. It may even go as far as hindering the person to feel at ease in front of anyone else, except his family and a few friends. The person with social phobia limits his activities to places and situations wherein he feels secure from being scrutinized by other people. However, given that social structures and activities are commonly geared towards active social interaction, the person often excludes himself from normal day-to-day engagements.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, statistics show that 15 million American adults are affected by social phobia, and both genders are equally inclined to develop the said disorder. Also, SAD often occurs alongside other psychological disorders such as depression. People with SAD usually resort to substance abuse as an attempt at self-medication. These facts and figures help in showing how social anxiety disorder has been detrimental to the people that suffer from it.
Curing the disorder
Treating this disorder may generally be done in three ways: psychotherapy, medication, or both. However, effective treatment can stand alone even if it employs non-medicated methods. While medication can aid in its treatment and possibly shorten the treatment period, the side effects of certain therapeutic drugs must be taken into account. Some of these can cause health hazards, worsen the disorder during cases of withdrawal, develop drug dependence and depression, and can also be fatal at some instances. As such, resorting to natural ways prove to be safer and more beneficial, while being simultaneously effective.
Recommended ways to complement treatment methods
While in the process of treating social anxiety disorder, employing complementary methods can aid in making the treatment more effective. Some of the recommendations include:
• Stress management
Stress and fatigue are two of the factors that enable this condition to continuously take root in a person. Techniques that eliminate stress and provide a calming effect such as meditation, sports, and exercise can significantly enhance the person’s chosen method of treating SAD.
• Support from family and friends
Loved ones can significantly boost a person’s morale in eliminating the disorder. Through being supportive, understanding, and caring towards the person who suffers from this disorder, the person will cultivate more drive to do away with his condition. Family and friends must avoid trivializing the disorder at all costs, as this can demoralize the anxiety-ridden person. Furthermore, it may cause him to be in denial of the reality and gravity of his condition, which will likely result to non-action.
• Joining a support group
It will help to know that a lot of people share the same problem with that person. He will largely feel that he is not alone in the struggle. Apart from sharing the disorder’s downsides, discussions of other’s achievements can inspire the person to attain the same success.
Still, it must be considered that these helpful ways may not wholly succeed in treating social anxiety disorder. Thus, what matters more is that the person avails the most effective, natural treatment: The powerful techniques that can address anxiety in a matter of seconds. Once the underlying anxiety is gone, social anxiety disorder will also gradually disappear, if not immediately.
Methods For Treating Social Anxiety Disorder
There are a number of effective methods for treating social anxiety disorder that don’t rely solely upon medications and the suppression of physical and emotional symptoms. These treatments all evince an attempt to get beyond the simple physical manifestations of the disorder and target the underlying root causes of the patient’s irrational fear of social situations. Where medications are involved in these therapies, they serve to alleviate the symptoms during the healing process and are not intended to be any kind of cure in and of themselves.
The therapy itself is designed to assist the suffering individual to take control of their emotional response to their imagined fear of being judged within social situations. When used as a method for treating Social Anxiety Disorder, cognitive therapy goes straight to the heart of the problem faced by those who suffer from the condition. By addressing the distorted thought patterns that cause these individuals to believe that their performance in social settings is constantly being judged by others, cognitive therapy attempts to assist patients in resolving those imagined fears so that they can engage in social interactions with more confidence, and without the negative thoughts that had previously caused them to suffer anxiety.
Behavioral therapy operates on the premise that reactions like fear and anxiety can be controlled by breaking the connection between the situation and the response. As a method for treating Social Anxiety Disorder, behavioral therapy centers on teaching the individual to relax both their mind and body so that they are able to take control of their emotional responses and avoid negative reactions based on instinct. Two other types of treatment, literary therapy and talk therapy rely upon educating oneself about the disorder and talking the problem out with family and friends.
As more study is done, methods for treating Social Anxiety Disorder have become more targeted on the underlying thought processes that cause the root fear and reaction than on suppression of symptoms. There are, of course, many conventional and alternative natural medications that are used for the suppression of symptoms, but the main focus of treatment should always be on helping individuals to overcome the patterns of thought that often prove so devastating in their social lives.
Various symptoms of social anxiety disorder are before you. Do you really feel palpitation and your heart starts beating tough whenever you are being approached for challenging assignments or anything alike. In such disorder the patients literally feel paralyzed as they are not in the position to enjoy the comforts of life in family relationships; neither can they be perfect in their professional attempts and social congregations.
Basically, what social anxiety disorder means is that we get tongue tied when in the public domain and needing to mix around with total strangers, or even not so total strangers. Classic cases involve colleagues, college and varsity mates, teammates and even neighbors. You know them by name but that’s really about it, and when there is a need for someone who afflicted with the said disorder to converse and communicate with them, there would be severe reactions on their part.
Sometimes these reactions can be biological in nature. Sweating, dollops of it, would be one of the more popular symptoms. There are others: stutters and jitters, for example. Others are more psychological in nature. Those afflicted by social anxiety disorders would often feel as though everyone in the room, the hall, the field, the venue would be focusing on them. Waiting to zoom in on anything resembling a fumble, and ultimately, this nightmare would come true.
In recognition of this basis are where social anxiety disorder treatment and correctional therapy lie. Basically everyone is the same in fearing to fail. The only difference being the level of confidence we have within ourselves to accept this. You can see however how this can be a vicious circle for someone so afflicted. Imagine them fumbling and withdrawing even deeper within their fear of failing an even worse failure.
Social anxiety disorder symptoms are tracked by two different methods. Social anxiety disorder treatment can be done through an emotional back up and physical treatments. Physical treatments are, however, preferred in the chronic cases. When symptoms become chronic depressive elements overpower. This leads to bad habits. People start taking alcohol and drugs. As a result they become prone to panic attacks where failure dominates success.
Treating depression is possible through medication and counseling sessions. Both medication and counseling are equally important in keeping the body and mind regain energy. Counseling sessions are good options and best preventing measures for the future attacks. Patients are made aware of the intricacies. They are exposed to the best preventive measures for tackling the worst situations and measures to regain confidence.
Panic attack are very dangerous for patients suffering from social anxiety disorders, and often the only cure would be to draw them away from the source of their anxiety in the first place. Chronic and extreme panic attack cures would therefore entail act that renders them unconscious so as to enable their being removed from where ever it was that the attack occurred. Most often for some one afflicted with social anxiety disorder, it would be a very, very public gathering.
Best panic attack cure is mandatory for effective treatment. It should be done in slow and progressive manner. Patience and motivation is necessary in the treatment procedure. The patients must be encouraged and made aware of the facts that failure is part of life hence he/she should not worry and must look into the positive side of life. Common breathing problem is another major issue which should be dealt in properly. Once treatments are begun, patients start gaining confidence. This way social anxiety disorder treatment becomes an easy affair.
Counseling skills matters most here and for most of the time, the controlled surroundings of treatment venue would help only partially in the curing process. There is no other way for social anxiety disorder treatment to work than for the patients allowed to confront their fears. The control here would be in the level of confrontation that is allowed, with patients brought in slowly over set thresholds of their anxieties slowly. Once they have cleared enough hurdles, it’s highly possible that they would not remember any more the point from where they started.
Complex situations may arrive in the diagnosing of patients suffering from social anxiety disorders. This disease has subjective complications. Same treatment cannot be applied to every patient. The treatment process seems like a hit and miss attempt. Expert doctors or therapists apply best medication which may be short term or long term. Everything depends upon the result of treatment. The ultimate motive is attaining excellent result.