According to medical professionals, the best strategies for
overcoming social phobia include varied treatments. These
treatments include cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive group
behavioral therapy and medication.
A doctor, specifically a psychologist or psychiatrist will
determine which strategy is best suited to each individual
patient in order to help the patient overcome their type of
social phobia. This is done by assessing the severity of the
symptoms that the patient is experiencing, the level of affect
that social phobia is having on the patient and the ability of
the patient to recover from their disorder.
Cognitive behavioral treatment or CBT is one of the first
treatments that will be tried to resolve social phobia. It is a
form of psychotherapy that has been in use for varied mental
illnesses and disorders for many years. It works by analyzing
the roots of all the emotions experienced by someone with social
phobia.
The first step in cognitive behavioral treatment for social
phobia strategies is to determine the negative thoughts that are
causing the patient's anxiousness. These are then put into
different categories and help the therapist to teach the patient
ways of controlling these thoughts, correcting the patient's
perceptions which result in these thoughts and then help them to
restructure their thought patterns to avoid these unreasonable
thoughts.
The strategies for treating social phobia with CBT involve
varied methods such as attribution, teaching the patient the
difference between irrational and rational thoughts, and helping
the patient to overcome any past experiences that may have
contributed to their irrational thoughts. In the case of
children, psychiatrists can get to the root cause or trauma that
may have resulted in their social phobia. They can help them to
understand the event and learn to deal with what happened and
cope with moving forward in life with a new positive approach
and attitude versus forgetting what happened, which in itself is
merely avoidance of the memories of those events.
Another strategy that medical practitioners find useful is
cognitive group behavioral therapy. It is similar to CBT in its
strategy for dealing with social phobia, but in a group setting
with other people who are suffering the same disorder and one or
more group therapists. The aim of this strategy is to not only
overcome the negative thought processes attributed to social
phobia, but allow the patients to realize that they are not
alone in what they suffer and have support from people who
understand what it really feels like.
There are other important strategies for overcoming social
phobia that group therapy undertakes. These include:
• Group discussions of each individuals symptoms, perceptions,
experiences and traumas
• The use of the group to show their support for individual
social phobia attacks by encouraging the changes in thought
patterns and perceptions.
•The use of the group on outings to overcome social phobia
attacks with people that each member feels can be trusted to not
judge them or ridicule them. The group helps each member to
avoid perceived embarrassment and the need to become isolated.
• The group outings help individual sufferers realize that
social interaction with new people does not have to be fearful
or even judgmental or embarrassing.
• The use of the group in varied situations in helping each
individual social phobia sufferer to no longer having the need
to put on appearances in how they look, behave, talk or in
regards to their abilities to lessen the likelihood of
misinterpreted judgments by others.
• The use of the group in varied situations to support
individual sufferers in learning that they no longer need to
feel embarrassment or guilt in social situations.
• Group discussions to help each individual sufferer in
overcoming anger resulting from previous situations or traumas.
• Group discussions to assist each individual sufferer in
overcoming the need to please everyone, be a perfectionist,
procrastinate, avoid social interactions and in becoming a
realistic individual with self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Group discussions to assist each individual sufferer in
dealing with times when social interaction does result in
judgment or embarrassment by others.
These strategies for overcoming social phobia have proven to be
very useful in helping patients deal with their affliction.
Studies have shown that both forms of cognitive behavioral
therapies do succeed and allow each patient to move forward and
enjoy normal, productive, socially interactive and happy lives.
Of course, there are a few cases were the affects of the anxiety
are so deep rooted that the individual needs to combine these
therapies with medication. However, if you do sufferer social
phobia, getting guidance from your doctor is the best first step
to curing your suffering.
There are many other strategies to overcome social phobia in
patients. One of the alternative methods is the use of audio
therapy. Audio therapy was designed to help sufferers understand
their disorder, the varied treatments, assess the degree of the
suffering/personal history, the time period needed to heal and
what strategies they can use personally to defeat this
affliction.
According to audio therapists, this treatment strategy does
work for a lot of people with mild to medium severity level
social phobia. It has proven that it is possible to rewire the
way one thinks, preserves things and situations, and how one
responds to any given social situation or experience. This
therapy has also been shown to make a marked difference in the
quality of life that each sufferer has by helping them to
overcome their anxieties and enjoy life to its fullest without
fears of embarrassment or ridicule as a result of their actions,
words, thoughts or how they appear to others.
Audio therapy strategies employ the use of worksheets,
instruction booklets, physiological diagrams of the brain, and
what it looks like when a patient changes their thoughts or
chemical/electrical pathways inside their brain. In fact, each
step of the therapy teaches patients:
• Calming techniques for socialization situations
• Self-control techniques for socialization situations
• Recognition of negative thought techniques
• Negative thought interception techniques
• Negative thought revaluation techniques to create more
positive thought patterns
• How to use positive reinforcement techniques and statements
to lower the occurrences of irrational and negative anxiety
feelings
• Strategies to eliminate irrational and negative anxiety
feelings through positive statements
• How to combat the recurring negative thought patterns that
have become habitual in social phobia attacks
• The types of calming and relaxation methods used to defeat
anxiety and how they work in all social and non-social
situations
• The reasons we need to stop negative thought patterns that
lead to social phobia and how this has resulted in life as we
know it
• How gentle action versus quick and sudden actions to combat
social phobia works
• How to avoid anticipatory doubts, concerns, uncertainty and
worry that cause us to achieve actions that trigger social
phobia
• How to analyze ourselves personally, the world we live in,
what thoughts and experiences have led us to the point of
anxiety and how we can become realistic and rational by using
actions that will not be considered unfriendly or irrational by
others
• How to use positive statements during social phobia affects
to deflate the emotional experience
• How the process of treatment strategies for social phobia is
done in a series of steps, a few forward and sometimes a couple
backwards, but then a few more forward
• How to develop a more realistic view of ourselves and the
world around us
• How to use our current beliefs and perceptions to change and
eliminate social phobia
• How to stop exaggerating our fears
• How to change how others view us in a realistic and
self-confident fashion
• How to accept ourselves for who and what we really are
irregardless of what others may think
• How to switch from neutralized negative thoughts to positive
thoughts and actions
• How to socialize with others through activities and speech
• How to converse with new people in a comfortable fashion
• How to distinguish between truthful and false emotions and
thoughts
• How to put worry out of our minds and move into a more
productive and happy lifestyle
• How our brains were programmed into getting social phobia and
how we can use the same techniques to reverse the process
• How to think and act positively, taking even the most
negative situation and turning into something positive
There are many forms of strategies that can help anyone
overcome social phobia, but audio therapy has proven to be the
most effective for most people. In fact, audio therapy is not
unique and definitely not used for just treating negative
thought processes. It has been used widely even by people to
achieve more in their lives, including top athletes, academics
and many other successful people. Fear of failure and
embarrassment are normal to a certain degree, but when it
controls everyday life, it has then become social phobia and
needs to be treated by a medical professional.
