Treatment of Social Phobia/Anxiety

As with all other pathologies, social phobia can be treated, the person suffering it can recover and enjoy a normal and full life, and so, the objective of therapy is to help the person to function effectively, it´s succes depending on the severity of the phobia.
Normally the treatment is carried out with the help of specific medication, a medication necessarily associated with a gradual therapy.
Approximately 80% of the people who suffer from social phobia find relief after receiving treatment.

Types of treatments for social phobia

Psychological treatment

One should first get in touch with a psychologist who can help us follow a personalized treatment.Nevertheless psychological treatment alone doesn´t guarantee results, for very often the disorder has become deeply rooted in the patients life, making him believe the problem is a part of his personality and not a learned behaviour based on erroneous and unconscious patterns, which is what it actually is.

The therapy which has proved to be the most efficient when treating social phobia is cognitive-behavioural therapy.
The cognitive side of it consists in training the patient to detect his thoughts and replace or modify those which are not useful to improve his quality of life.The behavioural means a controlled exposure to those situations causing anxiety.What is achieves with this system is that the angst caused by various situations will gradually decrease down to a level the patient can control.The psychologist must teach the patiend some techniques based on social skills to help him control his anxiety and prevent the physiological symptoms.After months of treatment the patient should be able to face situations he would never have been able to face before.

The combination of both therapies will allow those who suffer these disorders to get to know their way of thinking, to change it, and as a result to improve their quality of life.

Treatment with drugs

There are currently many drugs belonging to the anxiolitic family which have been proved efficient when treating social phobia, although some of them have the drawback of side effects.Drug treatments should be given under medical supervision and never on one´s own initiative.
The best known are of course Prozac and Seroxat, and also Trankimazin, Rivotril, Lexatin, Tenormin, etc...

Self-help groups

Self-help groups are something to bear in mind for those suffering from social phobia.They may be difficult to set up due to the characteristics of social phobia, but, nonetheless they can be very useful in exchanging information, for they offer a chance to speak with other people in sinilar circumstances and allow patients to expose their fears in public.

In these meetings cognitive and behavioural techniques are used by the leading psychologists and psychotherapists who have previously had a private talk with each of the participants.

Advantages of this therapy:

-The patient discovers "he is not the only one".
-He becomes more independent. He solves his own problems without the need of a therapist´s personalized guidance.
-The patient commits himself publicly to change, and pressure exists in the group.
-Other patient´s success is a motivation for recovery and helps believe in the therapy.
-There are other people who can create various social situations., which is an advantage.
-the patient can publicly admit his anxiety without feeling held back whereas in a normal social situation no one will tell you you have blushed...