The first step taken towards ascertaining if a person has social phobia symptoms is by treating the person as a unique and special individual. The person is allowed to freely express what it is they are feeling, experiencing and how this is affecting their lives. By these criteria and only these is a doctor able to determine if the symptoms being experienced are in fact social phobia, as it is also known.
Social phobic symptoms are very specific, but not all of them are experienced by every patient. These will all show a persistent and continuing experience of the fear of socialization or the inability to perform in any situation where the fear of embarrassment may happen. These symptoms include:
• A continuing and marked fear of a single or multiple socialization or performance related situations where the patient has to expose themselves to people they don't know and the potential for judgment by those people. The patient's fears display a concern about being embarrassed or possibly humiliated. For example, some patients the best clue to this is in their ability to socialize with their peers and form new relationships with people within that age group.
• The act of exposure to a fearful socialization situation almost always leads to feelings of extreme anxiety, which can manifest itself in the form of a 'panic attack'. Panic attacks can vary according to the age and person, but in children this can manifest itself in the form of avoiding other children they don't know, freezing in their actions, having temper tantrums and/or unexplained crying.
•The appearance of a fear that may be unreasonable or excessive in nature. However, in the case of children this is not usually a factor.
• The avoidance or endurance of fearful performance or social situations and/or the endurance of such situations that provokes an attack of extreme distress or anxiety (panic attack).
• An unreasonable avoidance, distress or stressful anticipation of fearful performance or social situations that significantly debilitates the patient's daily routine, ability to function normally at school or other social relationships or activities, which can result in a phobia about having a social phobia attack.
• If the patient is below eighteen years old and the occurrence of these symptoms has lasted at least six months.
• The subsequent avoidance or fears are not as a result of any physiological effects, such as the abuse of drugs, medication or any other underlying medical illness, and cannot be diagnosed as another form of mental illness such as separation anxiety disorder, panic disorder without agoraphobia (or with), schizoid personality disorder, body dysmorphic disorder or separation anxiety disorder.
• In the case where another underlying mental or medical illness is determined, the patient's fear has no relation to Parkinson's disease tremors, Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa or stuttering.
Social phobia is very hard to diagnose for most medical practitioners because its symptoms can be attributed to many other mental illnesses, medical conditions and/or possibly the abuse of drugs or medications. The symptoms of social phobia can affect the patient's ability to live a normal life and may interfere with their ability to enjoy normal social events and experiences that most of us would take for granted. In fact, as many studies have shown, the symptoms themselves are not enough on their own to diagnose this disorder, but just a part of the whole process. It is important that as a potential patient of this that you understand that along with the symptoms and possibly causes may come the possibility of traumatic experiences, whether known or unknown to you at this time. So, it is vital that if you are experiencing these symptoms that you seek medical advice first from your family doctor and then an experienced psychologist or psychiatrist. Do not be alarmed by the many questions they may ask you regarding your childhood or adulthood. These are meant to better assist you and the doctor in determining if the symptoms you are experiencing are in fact truly those of social phobia.
Treatment Of Social Phobia
People with social phobia are extremely self-conscious and concerned about what others may say or think about them. They are usually afraid of speaking up, out of fear that they will be judged or criticized. Those with social phobia tend to look down on themselves or suffer from low self-esteem. They are often worried about being noticed by other people and find social situations to be quite stressful.
A person with social anxieties may seem "shy," but in a phobia, this is taken to extremes. For example, if you struggle with social phobia, you might hesitate to make a crucial call because you're nervous about talking on the phone. You pick up the phone, but you're so nervous that you "freeze up" or forget why you called. Although it happens to everyone once in awhile, for a person with social phobia it may happen every time, until they find it impossible to make any phone calls.
Maybe it is the night before a big meeting at work and you find yourself panicking. You dread the thought of being in front of a room with your supervisor and all your colleagues watching as you present a project or new idea. You can't help but feel extremely embarrassed and self-conscious. Even after the meeting, you can't stop overanalyzing everything you did and said. You fear that you embarrassed yourself in front of your co-workers by stuttering or saying the wrong thing.
Or maybe you want to go to parties and make friends, but you avoid socializing because you're nervous about introducing yourself to someone new. You find crowded parties daunting and the thought of meeting someone new scares you. You worry about what you will say, or that you will get rejected. You might stay at home a lot because you're too worried to go out. These are only some of the ways social phobias can impact our lives.
Social phobias are overblown fears that can keep you from reaching your professional goals or fully enjoying life. But even those who realize their fears are irrational may not be able to handle their phobia. People with social anxiety disorder would love to socialize and make new friends, but are just too afraid to do so. In spite of their conscious desires and efforts, they cannot eliminate their fears because all phobias are rooted at the unconscious level of the mind. Ericksonian hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques are the most effective phobia treatments because they work at this unconscious level.
It can be difficult for those afflicted with social phobia to get help because they are too afraid to visit a therapist or talk about their fear. This is among the reasons why hypnosis programs are appropriate for them. The programs promote a calm and confidence-boosting mind frame in a private setting, without being overwhelming or intimidating.
The first stage in a proper phobia program is relaxation therapy. Hypnotic therapy is a powerful tool for relieving your tension and anxiety. At the moment when you are de-stressed, hypnosis techniques will shape positive ideas in your unconscious mind and get rid of your social phobia. NLP techniques are used to eliminate your fears by specifically targeting the process of thought that causes a phobia.
In conventional hypnosis, specifically worded post-hypnotic suggestions are used to treat every unique phobia. Unfortunately, people tend to resist being simply told what to think or do, so conventional hypnosis doesn't always work. A deep-seated phobia calls for a combination of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and NLP.
Ericksonian hypnosis techniques are more effective than conventional hypnosis because they use suggestions that aren't apparent to your conscious mind, instead of direct suggestions. These suggestions are hidden in conversation, in the form of stories and metaphors, to persuade your unconscious mind to adopt a different line of reasoning. For this reason, Ericksonian hypnosis is far more refined than traditional hypnosis therapy and far harder for the unconscious mind to reject.
A single program that includes Ericksonian hypnotherapy and NLP techniques can treat social phobia and any other phobia, in any person. This is because multiple techniques are used together to maximize their effectiveness. People are frequently in awe of the apparently miraculous changes they can get using hypnosis. Ericksonian hypnotherapy and NLP are excellent tools to help boost your confidence and overcome social phobia so you may fully enjoy life.
Both Greg Heslin & Alan B. Densky, Ch are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Greg Heslin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Management, Computers and The Internet and Career Change. Gary Miller was so scared that he actually passed out during a presentation and couldn't talk after due to numerous social anxieties. To learn more about his journey to recovery and weekly FREE Social Anxiety coping techniques, you can visit his web. Greg Heslin's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.
Alan B. Densky, Ch has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lose Weight, detox diet and Health. Alan B. Densky, CH is a certified hypnotist and NLP Practitioner. His ecommerce site offers . Hi. Alan B. Densky, Ch's top article generates over 2740000 views. to your Favourites.
