Posts Tagged ‘Social Phobia’

Specific Phobia – Social Phobia Should Not Be Confused With Shyness!

Social phobia or social anxiety disorder comes in many forms. For some people, it crops up in specific situations, most commonly public speaking. In other people, it may manifest as fear of dating or talking to an authority figure. For others, it is a more generalized fear of interacting with people you don´t know or aren´t comfortable with. 

Social phobia should not be confused with shyness. Shy people can certainly be uncomfortable around others but they don´t suffer from extreme anxiety anticipating the event and they don´t necessarily avoid the situation that makes them anxious. 

People with social phobia don´t have to be shy at all. In fact they can be completely at ease, even gregarious in many situations until they run into the situation they are phobic about. Walking down an aisle in public or making a speech can suddenly turn these previously at ease people into unrecognizable, nervous, agitated wrecks. 

As with other anxiety disorders and phobias, social phobia hampers your life. A negative impact on your daily life is the key component in any phobia diagnosis. If you pass up a promotion because you can´t give public presentations then your phobia has interfered with your life and you have this disorder. 

For people suffering from phobia the dread and anxiety can take over your life. If you know you need to go to a client´s Christmas party, you can dread that event for weeks beforehand and make yourself sick. The worry and anxiety are both physically and mentally debilitating. 

People who suffer from social phobia know that their feelings are irrational or overblown. However, they can´t escape the immense dread and worry that preoccupies their lives before facing the feared social occasion. The anticipatory dread may lead to avoidance and certainly plagues the mind for a great deal of time beforehand. 

If your phobia isn´t severe you may be able to face the feared social situation but the discomfort you feel during the event is overwhelming. What´s more, the feelings often remain after the event; as you obsess over the details of your interactions, wonder what people thought of you and what their comments might be about you now. 

The preoccupation, extreme anxiety and potential panic attacks surrounding social interaction are not normal. Shyness is fine but when the feelings are so overwhelming that they cause anxiety for weeks or months or years then it has crossed over into a phobia. 

The sufferers have their lives dictated by the need to avoid the specific type of situation they are phobic about. They will go to almost any length to avoid the fear of being judged or looked at by others. This is not a problem that will just go away; it is a situation that requires intervention on your part to retrain your mind to overcome the anxiousness that plagues it.

Socio-Phobia In Children – What Every Parent Needs To Know

Majority of young people with social phobia are frequently preoccupied with negative views of themselves. These children are afraid they will speak or act foolishly, be rejected by peers, or publicly fail when performing school tasks. Children with social phobia may in fact be less adept in social interactions.

When social phobia develops in childhood, the symptoms generally last at least six months, which distinguishes it from the temporary social awkwardness that many children briefly experience in new environments. Peer relationships, school functioning and attendance, and family functioning may all suffer as a result of a child’s social phobia.

Social phobia may look different in young people than in adults. While adults recognize the excessiveness of their discomfort in social situations, children may not have that understanding. Younger children with social phobia may protest when forced to leave a parent’s side, have a tantrum when facing a social encounter, refuse to play with friends, or complain about physical illness at the time of a social event.

In contrast, adolescents may simply avoid group gatherings or describe little interest in friendships. Childhood social phobia is often identified around age 12, at a time when children are expected to increase their social activities with peers and in school.

Diagnosing social phobia can be challenging, and children with social phobia may have more than one anxiety disorder. A trained clinician (such as a child psychiatrist, child psychologist or pediatric neurologist) should integrate information from home, school, and the clinical visit to make a diagnosis.

At home, children with social phobia may have a combination of the symptoms listed below.
- Consistent and extreme fear of situations involving new people, in contrast to the child’s ability to enjoy familiar people
- Extreme fear of social and performance situations due to the child’s worry about acting in an embarrassing way
- Anxiety attacks when anticipating or attempting social interactions (such as going to a school party, speaking in front of others, or asking someone for a pencil). Symptoms can be so severe as to resemble or include panic attacks: intense fear accompanied by heart palpitations, chest discomfort, sweating, trembling, nausea, numbness or tingling, hot/cold flashes, shortness of breath, and dizziness.
- Fearfulness with peers as well as adults. While many people become nervous around social encounters, patients with social phobia may be essentially “paralyzed,” unable to participate or engage with others.
- Avoidance of social situations. Some children may cry, complain, or tantrum to avoid social encounters. Other children may be able to tolerate these encounters only in the company of a familiar person.
- Severe distress in routine social situations such as starting or maintaining a conversation, talking to an adult, playing in a small group, or going to a party
- School refusal due to worries about school and social performance
- Reluctance to participate in ordinary outings or activities. The child may not want to go out to dinner, meet friends to play, or engage in after school programs.

Some children or adolescents with social phobia may try to hide symptoms while at school. As a result, they may appear to have more symptoms at home than at school. With other children, the symptoms are particularly noticeable to teachers or staff because of the child’s difficulty in social or performance situations at school.

Phobias – Their Causes And How You Can Overcome Them With Hypnotherapy

DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF PHOBIAS:
A phobia can be defined as an illogical fear or dread. When a person experiences a panic attack, they get panicky feelings; their breathing and heart rates increase; they may experience feeling choked up like their heart is in their throat; their palms often get sweaty; they may experience a ringing in their ears; and they often find that they are unable to take part in an activity. These feelings motivate the individual to try to avoid the situations and places that cause them.

EXAMPLES OF COMMON PHOBIAS:
For example, if someone has an irrational fear of driving, they would exhibit these symptoms at the time they endeavor to drive, or perhaps even when they think about driving. Or a terror attack may happen only when driving in specific places like across railroad tracks.

The fear of talking in front of a group of people is a comparatively widespread phobia. The frightened feelings appear when the sufferer begins to talk in front of a person that they are frightened by, or they might perhaps experience frightened feelings only when in front of a group of other people. The size of the assembly will vary. This phobia can be set off by fears of inadequacy, or a lack of self-esteem.

Those who suffer from a social phobia can get horrifically nervous just being around other folks, even people they recognize. It’s a fear that they will be criticized or evaluated by others. This fear can be set off by any kind of social relations. A person could be waiting on line at a supermarket and get stressful feelings as they imagine having to talk to the cashier while they checkout.

The fear of taking a test (which is universally known as test anxiety) is quite a common phobia. A phobia to taking tests is rooted in comparing yourself to other folks, and is deeply rooted in a fear of failing.

People have experienced irrational fears to every sort of experience and environment under the sun. For example: Snakes; bugs; relationships; flying; small enclosed places; animals; high places; death; and even the great outdoors.

Agoraphobia is generally thought to be a fear of open spaces. However, this definition is extremely confusing because Agoraphobics are really afraid of having a panic attack, wherever and whenever. This phobia is developed when a person begins to avoid places or situations they have associated with anxiety. For example, they could have a panic attack at home, church, or in a supermarket.

For people who suffer with phobias, once their panic attacks have begun, they begin to anticipate them to happen. And this anticipation actually causes them to occur with increasing frequency. Other folks experience fearful feelings on a continuous basis. These feelings cause an overall discomfort, rather than panic.

FORMS OF TREATMENT THAT ARE AVAILABLE

DRUGS:
Some physicians care for their patients using sedatives, which can make the condition worse over prolonged treatment. Sedatives do not treat the underlying cause of a phobia; they only camouflage some of the symptoms.

TALK THERAPY:
Some schools of therapy prescribe “Talk Therapy.” Talk therapy is only talking about what is bothering you. Unfortunately, talking about or even thinking about the situation or environment that sets off a phobia can trigger a panic attack!

HYPNOTHERAPY:
Traditional hypnosis has been used to treat phobias, but with only meager success. Traditional hypnotic therapy is accomplished when the therapist guides the subject into a relaxed state of self hypnosis and gives the client post-hypnotic commands or suggestions. Since most people in this generation question and resist direct suggestions, they also reject the idea that they will be more relaxed and at ease when they encounter the situation or environment that triggers their panic attacks.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION:
Systematic Desensitization is the process of slowly desensitizing a phobic person to the environment or circumstances that sets off a panic attack. For example, if a woman wants to dive from a high board but she fears it, she is asked to first dive from a height that she feels confident about. She dives in and realizes that she did not get hurt and that she is secure.

Next she is asked to dive in from the bottom step of the ladder going up to the high diving board. Again, she dives in and realizes that she wasn’t hurt and that she is again safe and secure.

Over a period of time the subject is asked to dive in from progressively higher steps on the ladder. Each time she dives in and realizes that nothing bad happened and that she is safe and secure, she is able to move up to the next rung on the ladder. If she experiences the sensation of fear, then she is asked to move back down one rung on the ladder and dive from there until she feels complete comfort and security. In the end she makes it to the top of the ladder and dives in from the high board itself.

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION WHILE IN THE STATE OF HYPNOSIS:
Systematic Desensitization can be done virtually while in a hypnotic state with as good as or even better results. While in a relaxed state of hypnosis, the woman would be asked to envision herself diving in from each step on the ladder. She would be asked to visualize herself feeling relaxed and confident as she dives in. Since she is in fact disassociated while picturing herself, she is unable to trigger a phobic attack.

Next she is asked to associate, or put the camera inside of her head so she would be seeing what she would see through her own eyes if she was actually diving in from each step of the ladder. She is asked to imagine feeling safe and relaxed as she dives in.

Just as in a live (in vivo) systematic desensitization, if she feels any panic she is asked to go back to the previous lower step on the ladder and visualize diving in from there.

She might be taught to create a kinesthetic (feeling or touch) “anchor” of feelings of security and safety. She could then trigger that anchor while imagining that she is diving, and the feelings of safety and security could be subjectively transferred to the act of diving.

Systematic Desensitization while in a hypnotic state can be very useful and totally successful, but is can also be slow and take several hypnotic sessions to bring about a cure.

NLP V/K DISASSOCIATION:
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is fundamentally the study and practice of how we create our reality. The V/K stands for visual / kinesthetic. The V/K Disassociation is a technique that allows a trained NLP Practitioner to guide a subject through specific visual imagery that quickly and in many cases instantly disconnects or disassociates the feelings of freight from the trigger or phobia that causes them. The V/K Disassociation is known as the “One session phobia cure” in Neuro-Linguistic Programming circles, and with good reason.

CONCLUSION:
Irrational fears are common in our culture. They are fears that are not based in reality. There are many ways of treating phobias, but thus far in my view, the best finest available are Systematic Desensitization while hypnotized, and the Neuro-Linguistic Programming V/K Disassociation technique.