Social Anxiety Support: Living with Social Anxiety Disorder

The good news is:  social anxiety disorder can be treated. In fact, there are several different treatments that can give people relief from this disease. 

WHERE TO BEGIN:  ACCEPTANCE

Before beginning any treatment it’s important for social anxiety disorder sufferers to accept the fact that they have the problem.  Many people are embarrassed to admit they are having symptoms.  Men especially feel that capitulating to social anxiety disorder means they are “weak” or “wimpy”.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  There is a strong organic or chemcial component to the disease that cannot be controlled by any amount of willpower.  Fighting the problem alone only leads to stronger symptoms and increased denial.  The best thing a social anxiety disorder sufferer can do is accept they have the problem and get some help.  This disease should be viewed the same as any other medical condition such as cancer or diabetes.  It’s not a sign of “weakness” but rather a fact of life that needs medical attention.

A Closer Look at Common Treatments

Modern medicine has two main avenue of treatments for social anxiety disorder:  psychotherapy and medication.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitibe Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is one of the most common and effective forms of psychotherapy.  It has been proven to significantly help all types of anxiety sufferers and prevent re-occurrences.  CBT employs a collection of mental techniques aimed at curbing certain negative appraisals of life situations.  Often the social anxiety sufferer’s greatest battle is in his or her assessment of life events.  These false and negative assessments often result in increased anxiety and depression.  CBT gives people the tools to fight these “knee-jerk” negative assessments.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is often combined with “exposure therapy” also known as “desensitization”.   Under the supervision of a professional, an anxiety sufferer is guided through a heirachical series of situations that normally make them anxious.  The goal is for the patient to gradually get accustomed to a situation that causes them fear, thus helping hem to overcome this fear or phobia.  

Medications

For most social anxiety disorder sufferers – psychotherapy alone is not enough to overcome the disease.  Medication is often needed in conjunction with psychotherapy.   Currently, there are 3 main types of medications used to treat social anxiety disorder: 

1. SSRI’s and SSNRI’s (Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Cymbalta)
2. Benzodiazapines (Xanax, Klonopin, Tranxene)
3. Beta Blockers (propranolol, timolol, atenolol)

We take a closer look at these medications in our next post…