Social Phobia Treatment

Probably the most common form of anxiety disorder is that known as Social Phobia or Social Anxiety Disorder. In fact, it’s so common that it is believed to affect somewhere around 10% of the entire population in one degree or another.

What’s more, it can affect absolutely anyone – from housewife to movie star.

Renowned entertainers who have spent years in the public eye — from Barbara Streisland to Kim Basinger — have spoken publicly of their experience and recovery from social phobia and anxiety.

And the effects of Social Anxiety Disorder and social phobia can be truly debilitating, if not devastating.

Very often physical symptoms accompany this disorder. These can include blushing and sweating, trembling, increased heart rate, stammering and nausea. In acute cases, the person may feel dizzy and as if he or she is about to pass out.

All this, of course, simply serves to intensify the fear.

The true fear underpinning this disorder is very often the fear of being negatively judged and evaluated by others. This fear or apprehension can make the person afraid of doing anything that might prove embarrassing to them in public.

Amongst the most common forms are fear of social interaction, fear of dealing with authority figures, fear of public speaking or performing, fear of exams and fear in connection with sexual performance.

Very often this disorder has its origins in childhood and infancy.

Indeed, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) estimates that somewhere around 40% of all such phobias begin before the age of 10, and a gigantic 95% before the age of 20. And this appears to be the case, even though the actual symptoms may not become apparent until later on in life.

Left unresolved and untreated, depression can develop and some may turn to alcohol and drugs in order to cope.

All too frequently the medical response to social phobia and Social Anxiety Disorder is to simply drug it, often with anti-anxiety medication – particularly favored are drugs from the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor group (SSIRs) such as paroxetine (Paxil or Seroxat).

When psychotherapy is offered, it is usually in the form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).

Yet, while both these strategies can provide relief to some sufferers, the emphasis is on controlling the symptoms rather than treating the underlying drivers, or cause.

And, in the clinical experience of this therapist, while the drivers remain intact then, sooner or later, the anxiety will return – and all too often with a vengeance.

There is another way.

You see, the subconscious mind – that repository of beliefs – is simply trying to protect the individual from danger by creating feelings of anxiety and fear so that he or she will be safe from harm. But the subconscious has got it wrong. It is basing its faulty response on previous conditioning that is simply no longer appropriate.

With modern advanced hypnotherapy techniques we can reach deep within the subconscious mind, to where those feelings are generated, and adjust the faulty beliefs that are keeping the anxiety ‘program’ running.

Once this is accomplished, the symptoms – social anxiety and social phobia – just become extinct because there is nothing there to drive them anymore.

If you have been struggling with the really debilitating effects of social phobia or social anxiety disorder, do not give up — effective help is available.

With modern and advanced hypnotherapy techniques, you can be returned to your true nature and be released from that old anxiety and fear for good.

By: Peter James Field

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