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What Causes Social Anxiety Disorder
Specifics on causes are somewhat lacking in available social anxiety disorder information. Most physicians believe it has both genetic and physical factors. A social anxiety parent can unconsciously pass the phobia on to children as a learned response. It is also possible that social anxiety results from a deficit of the chemical serotonin in the brain, a condition that can often be alleviated with specific medications.
How Is It Diagnosed?
Unfortunately since the criteria are vague, diagnosing social anxiety disorder is often difficult. The symptoms and behavior associated with the disorder are similar to other conditions like general anxiety disorder. Interviews often do not serve to pinpoint the condition as some individuals are simply shy or have poor social skills. It is imperative to put the individual at a level of ease sufficient to allow them to accurately confide their reactions to and behavior during social activities. Only frank dialogue with the affected individual can actually reveal if they have the required level of discomfort and apprehension that characterize social anxiety disorder.
How Is It treated
Normally social anxiety disorder help is a two-fold process involving both "talk" therapy and the use of medications.
Although the prescriptions may relieve much of the psychological pain caused by the anxiety, key changes in behavior are required to actually begin to overcome the condition. For the individual with social anxiety, support in a group or one-on-one basis is extremely helpful.
TALK THERAPY
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The "talk" methods involved include cognitive behavior therapy and social skills training. People who suffer from social anxiety disorder must learn to reinterpret what they see and hear in a social setting and to focus attention away from themselves. Only by learning to react differently to the triggers of their anxiety and to overcome the feeling that they are, in essence, under a microscope, can the individual hope to rid themselves of the paranoid belief that they are constantly being judged.
One of the best ways to do this is to subject the affected person to social settings and events.
While this kind of social immersion is at first intensely upsetting, it is the only true environment in which to learn stress-management and to improve interpersonal skills. This social interaction may either be carried out under the supervision of the therapist or as "homework" assignments on which the patient will report and from which they will hopefully learn.
MEDICATIONS
The preferred social anxiety disorder medicine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) like Prozac, Paxil, or Zoloft. These drugs are much better tolerated for long-term use than the older monoamine oxidase inhibitors once used. Both those drugs and benzodiazepines carry serious risk of interaction with other medications and can be addictive.
Changing Your Behavior And Responses Are The Biggest Challenges
One of the greatest challenges for the individual with social anxiety disorder is changing their own behavior whether that be the excessive preparation prior to the event or the overwhelming desire to run once they are there. This is why social skills training that teaches individuals to make and maintain eye contact or to actively show an interest in others by asking questions is so important to the healing process.
Although everyone has suffered at one time or another from a mild attack of social phobia, most have thankfully been spared the intense apprehension and panic experienced by a person with serious social anxiety. Support is available through recognized therapies and medications. The hardest step is admitting the need for help.
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