ABOUT SOCIAL ANXIETY
Also known as social phobia, social anxiety results from feeling massive amounts of self-consciousness and embarrassment during your usual everyday interactions. During these interactions, you feel judged negatively and scrutinized by the others around you. Social anxiety is impactful and distressing, which can negatively affect one’s life. It leads to avoidance, negatively affecting your everyday activities, relationships, work-life, school, and confidence. The disorder usually occurs during the teenage years but can also begin during childhood and adulthood.
Approximately 13% of Americans currently experience social anxiety or symptoms similar to it. The disorder tends to go under the radar or undiagnosed because most people who obtain it refuse to seek help, and in most cases, women tend to have social anxiety more than men. People will spend years without the proper treatment or diagnosis and experience depression, loneliness, and even suicidal thoughts from isolating themselves from their fears. Luckily, several treatments can cure social anxiety, such as seeing an Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) specialist.
Emotional Symptoms May Include
Fear of being judged negatively in situations
Fear of embarrassing or humiliating yourself
Fear of talking or interacting with strangers
Fear of others noticing your anxiousness
Avoiding situations that will make you the center of attention
Feeling anticipation of a feared event or activity
Intense anxiety during social situations
Fear of worst-case scenario from a negative experience within a social situation
Physical Symptoms May Include
Sweating
Trembling
Upset stomach
Dizziness
Nausea
Muscle tension
Fast heartbeat
Difficulty catching breath
Social Anxiety Treatment
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the most effective treatment of social anxiety. Treatment is crucial for people who have developed emotional and physical symptoms. ERP is a necessary component of CBT for most anxiety conditions, particularly social anxiety. The two components include exposures—facing fears in a systematic, gradual, and purposeful manner to elicit anxiety—and response (or ritual) prevention—actively resisting safety behaviors and other avoidant strategies that only offer a short-term reduction of symptoms but maintain the cycle of anxiety and avoidance in the long-term. Our therapists will guide you to progressively face the situations and thoughts that provoke your social anxiety while learning how not to react with rituals, compulsions, reassurance seeking, or avoidance.