Social Anxiety

What is Social Anxiety?

Social anxiety consists of experiencing intense fear of being embarrassed, humiliated or other people evaluating us in a negative way. Social anxiety is different than being shy; it is to the point where you avoid people and places due to fear that other people may judge you, fear that you may say something inappropriate and embarrass yourself. Triggers for social anxiety symptoms are usually social situations such as a party and performance based situations such as speaking in front of a crowd.
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Symptoms of Social Anxiety:
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• Intense fear
• Racing heart
• Sweating
• Dry mouth
• Nausea
• Shaking
• Dizziness
• Blushing

Treatment:

Social anxiety is treatable and you can learn how to manage social situations and performance based situations. Treatment for social anxiety includes psychotherapy, specifically Cognitive Behaviroural Therapy (CBT). CBT looks at how we can start changing our thought and behavioural patterns to influence how we feel. Treatment also includes doing some exposure around some of your fears in order to habituate yourself to the anxiety provoking situation. Some people do require a combination of medications and CBT to overcome their symptoms of social anxiety, but usually you can try CBT first then decide with your doctor if adding an anti-anxiety medication would be helpful. I have been utilizing cognitive behaviroural therapy for many years and have observed the benefits for many individuals.