Is this bull or what?

[hollaholla]

I read everywhere that people with social anxiety are 80% successfully treated! If that's the case then why does it seem like people are fucked with this so bad??? I really despise medicine and science!

 

[Travis88]

Maybe you missed the fine-print , maybe 80% are sucessfully treated by time they are 80 years old.

 

[Crimefish]

You also have to take into account that only a fraction of actual sufferers make it to statistics. Those statistics probably only count people diagnosed who received treatment. We can't know how many people don't even seek treatment or diagnosis.

 

[hollaholla]

I'm sure they are talking about people that were diagnosed....but if you suffer from it mildly, can you actually be cured from it without meds just therapy?

 

[Chilling__Echo]

also, what's "successful"? even *normal* people get nervous or embarrassed sometimes. it's never something we can completely escape. and it's hard to measure the level of "comfort" acheived compare to other people

 

[Nightshade]

Well, if "successfully treated" means "significant improvement", I would count myself as "successfully treated". Doesn't mean I'm cured. Doesn't even mean I don't have social phobia any more. Still a long way to go. Also, based on past experience, it is quite likely that I will develop another phobia since social phobia wasn't my first phobia (or even my second).

But I'm better than I was and even that improvement has made me feel so much better.

Probably the single most effective thing was doing the CBT exercises in a self-help book for social phobia. Other things helped, but without that I'd still be paying for regular visits to a psychologist and on medication I think (about to face my first winter in years without antidepressants - fingers crossed).