Treatment For Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder usually begins during adolescence or early adulthood and has lasting negative impacts on quality of life, including disrupted relationships and workplace performance, isolation, and loss of friendships.

Treatment for social anxiety disorder includes medication and psychotherapy sessions conducted in groups. Your therapist can assist in helping you overcome fear by teaching coping mechanisms and practicing in safe situations.

Medication

People may sometimes feel anxious or worried when in social situations. If this feeling persists and has an adverse impact on your life, then it may be worthwhile talking to your GP about receiving some professional help.

Your GP may refer you to mental health specialists for more in-depth treatment, who will conduct an evaluation of your symptoms and suggest appropriate therapies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), psychotherapy, teletherapy or medication.

CBT is an effective treatment option for social anxiety disorder. It can help individuals learn to modify negative thoughts about social situations, as well as practice new behaviors in them. Furthermore, exposure therapy involves gradually facing situations you fear with support from a professional therapist in a safe environment.

Antianxiety medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, such as fluoxetine, sertraline and paroxetine) may also help alleviate your symptoms; however not all medications work equally for everyone and it may take some time before you find one that suits you personally.

Psychotherapy

Therapists can teach you techniques for managing anxiety, such as relaxation training and breathing exercises, challenging negative or unhelpful thoughts that contribute to anxiety, and replacing them with more balanced viewpoints. Psychotherapy sessions may take place either face-to-face or remotely through teletherapy - the latter allows you to find someone outside your geographic region but still work together remotely.

Therapists can teach you to face social situations that cause anxiety in steps through exposure therapy, which has strong evidence to back its effectiveness. Cognitive restructuring - in which automatic thoughts are identified and challenged prior, during, and post exposure - may also be effective; although its evidence supporting its use against social anxiety disorder is limited. It may still prove beneficial however.

Support Groups

Though feeling nervous or self-conscious in social situations is natural, excessive anxiety about such encounters can have severe repercussions that impact all aspects of life - relationships, work/school performance and daily tasks can become significantly harder to navigate when overly anxious. Luckily, therapy and medication may provide effective relief from this condition.

Peer support groups offer a powerful form of therapy for people living with social anxiety. These communities allow individuals to connect with others who are experiencing similar symptoms, providing encouragement and learning new coping strategies from one another. Peer support groups can be found in local meetings as well as international phone conference meetings.

When selecting a group for social anxiety support, it's essential that they specialize specifically in this topic. Furthermore, having one led by an experienced therapist could offer more guidance and assistance - the Anxiety & Depression Association of America provides an online search tool which enables individuals to quickly locate support groups near them.

Teletherapy

Have online therapy sessions with an accredited therapist can help people overcome social anxiety. Furthermore, this solution may assist those having trouble finding one in their area as it removes travel costs and expenses associated with attending therapy sessions in person.

Your healthcare provider can diagnose social anxiety disorder through asking about its symptoms and history, conducting a physical exam and looking for signs of any underlying medical conditions.

Psychotherapy (also referred to as talk therapy) can significantly help those living with social anxiety disorder. Psychotherapy may even prove more effective than medication; cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely practiced types of therapy used for anxiety relief.

CBT helps you learn techniques for changing negative thoughts and beliefs that contribute to social anxiety, as well as skills such as role-playing and social skills training that can build your confidence in social situations. Furthermore, your therapist may use exposure-based CBT techniques in order to gradually expose you to types of social interactions which make you uncomfortable.