Welcome to the world of the socially anxious.
Social anxiety is the third largest psychological problem in the United States today. This type of anxiety affects 15 million Americans in any given year. Unlike some other psychological problems, social anxiety is not well understood by the general public or by medical and mental health care professionals, such as doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors. In fact, people with social anxiety are misdiagnosed almost 90% of the time. People with social phobia come to our anxiety clinic labeled as "schizophrenic", "manic-depressive", "clinically depressed", "panic disordered", and "personality disordered", among other damaging misdiagnoses.
Because few socially-anxious people have heard of their own problem, and have never seen it discussed on any media, such as the television talk shows, they think they are the only ones in the whole world who have these terrible symptoms. Therefore, they must keep quiet about them. It would be awful if everyone realized how much anxiety they experienced in daily life. Then what would people think about them? Unfortunately, without some kind of education, knowledge, and appropriate treatment, social phobia/social anxiety continues to wreak havoc throughout their lives. Adding to the dilemma, when a person with social anxiety finally gets up the nerve to seek help, the chances that they can find it are very, very slim.
Making the situation more difficult is that social anxiety does not come and go like some other physical and psychological problems. If you have social anxiety one day......you have it every day for the rest of your life.....
The feelings I described to you at the beginning of the article are those of people with social anxiety disorder. That is, their symptoms apply to most social events and functions in almost every area of life. I suffered from social anxiety myself for twenty years before I ever saw the term or read about its symptoms in a book. (The first book that specifically dealt with social phobia was not published until the 1990's.)
As with all problems, everyone with social anxiety has slightly different secondary symptoms. Some people, for example, cannot write in public because they fear people are watching and their hand will shake. Others are very introverted and they find it too difficult to hold down a job. Still others have severe anxiety about eating or drinking in the presence of other people. Some people with social anxiety feel that a certain part of their body (such as the face or neck) are particularly "strange looking" and vulnerable to being stared at. Others experience a muscle spasm (usually around the neck and shoulders) and it becomes the center of their focus ---"it's so embarrassing that if someone sees it I will be humiliated forever!"
One thing that all socially anxious people share is the knowledge that their thoughts and fears are basically irrational. That is, people with social anxiety know that others are really not critically judging or evaluating them all the time. They understand that people are not trying to embarrass or humiliate them. They realize that their thoughts and feelings are somewhat exaggerated and irrational. Yet, despite this rational knowledge, they still continue to feel differently.
It is these automatic "feelings" and thoughts that occur around social situations that must be met and conquered in therapy. Usually these anxious feelings are tied to thoughts that are entwined in a vicious cycle of negative expectations and negative appraisals. It is a catch-22 situation: there is no way out without the appropriate therapy.
Here comes the good part.
How can social anxiety be treated? Many therapeutic methods have been studied, but cognitive-behavioral therapy is the only modality that has been shown to work effectively. In fact, treatment of social anxiety through cognitive-behavioral methods has the capacity to produce long-lasting, permanent relief from the anxiety-laden world of social anxiety.
Social anxiety responds to relatively short-term therapy, depending on the severity of the condition. I have seen significant progress in just twelve individual sessions, although most people respond better with sixteen to twenty-four meetings. To overcome social anxiety, completion of a behavioral therapy group is also essential (when people feel ready for this and not before).
What socially anxious people do not need is years and years of therapy or counseling. You can't be "counseled" out of social phobia. In fact, socially anxious people who are taught to "analyze" and "ruminate" over their problems usually make their social anxiety and fears much worse, which in turn leads to depression, which just reinforces the fact that "I will never get better". (Shudder...this statement does NOT have to be true.)
THERE IS A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL PEOPLE WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY. Without treatment, social anxiety is a torturous and horrible emotional problem; with treatment, its bark is worse than its bite. Add to this that current research is clear that cognitive-behavioral therapy is highly successful in the treatment of social anxiety. In fact, the people who are unsuccessful are the ones who are not persistent in their practice and who won't stick with simple methods and techniques at home. They are the ones who give up.
If a person is motivated to end the years and years of crippling anxiety, then cognitive-behavioral treatment provides the methods, techniques, and strategies that come together to lessen the anxiety and make the world a much more enjoyable place.
Many of us have been through the crippling fears and constant anxiety that social phobia produces -- and have come out healthier and happier on the other side. You can too.
---Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D.Psychologist
Social anxiety is the third largest psychological problem in the United States today. This type of anxiety affects 15 million Americans in any given year. Unlike some other psychological problems, social anxiety is not well understood by the general public or by medical and mental health care professionals, such as doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors. In fact, people with social anxiety are misdiagnosed almost 90% of the time. People with social phobia come to our anxiety clinic labeled as "schizophrenic", "manic-depressive", "clinically depressed", "panic disordered", and "personality disordered", among other damaging misdiagnoses.
Because few socially-anxious people have heard of their own problem, and have never seen it discussed on any media, such as the television talk shows, they think they are the only ones in the whole world who have these terrible symptoms. Therefore, they must keep quiet about them. It would be awful if everyone realized how much anxiety they experienced in daily life. Then what would people think about them? Unfortunately, without some kind of education, knowledge, and appropriate treatment, social phobia/social anxiety continues to wreak havoc throughout their lives. Adding to the dilemma, when a person with social anxiety finally gets up the nerve to seek help, the chances that they can find it are very, very slim.
Making the situation more difficult is that social anxiety does not come and go like some other physical and psychological problems. If you have social anxiety one day......you have it every day for the rest of your life.....
The feelings I described to you at the beginning of the article are those of people with social anxiety disorder. That is, their symptoms apply to most social events and functions in almost every area of life. I suffered from social anxiety myself for twenty years before I ever saw the term or read about its symptoms in a book. (The first book that specifically dealt with social phobia was not published until the 1990's.)
As with all problems, everyone with social anxiety has slightly different secondary symptoms. Some people, for example, cannot write in public because they fear people are watching and their hand will shake. Others are very introverted and they find it too difficult to hold down a job. Still others have severe anxiety about eating or drinking in the presence of other people. Some people with social anxiety feel that a certain part of their body (such as the face or neck) are particularly "strange looking" and vulnerable to being stared at. Others experience a muscle spasm (usually around the neck and shoulders) and it becomes the center of their focus ---"it's so embarrassing that if someone sees it I will be humiliated forever!"
One thing that all socially anxious people share is the knowledge that their thoughts and fears are basically irrational. That is, people with social anxiety know that others are really not critically judging or evaluating them all the time. They understand that people are not trying to embarrass or humiliate them. They realize that their thoughts and feelings are somewhat exaggerated and irrational. Yet, despite this rational knowledge, they still continue to feel differently.
It is these automatic "feelings" and thoughts that occur around social situations that must be met and conquered in therapy. Usually these anxious feelings are tied to thoughts that are entwined in a vicious cycle of negative expectations and negative appraisals. It is a catch-22 situation: there is no way out without the appropriate therapy.
Here comes the good part.
How can social anxiety be treated? Many therapeutic methods have been studied, but cognitive-behavioral therapy is the only modality that has been shown to work effectively. In fact, treatment of social anxiety through cognitive-behavioral methods has the capacity to produce long-lasting, permanent relief from the anxiety-laden world of social anxiety.
Social anxiety responds to relatively short-term therapy, depending on the severity of the condition. I have seen significant progress in just twelve individual sessions, although most people respond better with sixteen to twenty-four meetings. To overcome social anxiety, completion of a behavioral therapy group is also essential (when people feel ready for this and not before).
What socially anxious people do not need is years and years of therapy or counseling. You can't be "counseled" out of social phobia. In fact, socially anxious people who are taught to "analyze" and "ruminate" over their problems usually make their social anxiety and fears much worse, which in turn leads to depression, which just reinforces the fact that "I will never get better". (Shudder...this statement does NOT have to be true.)
THERE IS A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL PEOPLE WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY. Without treatment, social anxiety is a torturous and horrible emotional problem; with treatment, its bark is worse than its bite. Add to this that current research is clear that cognitive-behavioral therapy is highly successful in the treatment of social anxiety. In fact, the people who are unsuccessful are the ones who are not persistent in their practice and who won't stick with simple methods and techniques at home. They are the ones who give up.
If a person is motivated to end the years and years of crippling anxiety, then cognitive-behavioral treatment provides the methods, techniques, and strategies that come together to lessen the anxiety and make the world a much more enjoyable place.
Many of us have been through the crippling fears and constant anxiety that social phobia produces -- and have come out healthier and happier on the other side. You can too.
---Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D.Psychologist
1 comentarios:
Es bueno pa entenderte q scribas en spañolBienvenido al mundo de la ansiedad social.
Ansiedad social es el tercer mayor problema psicológico en los Estados Unidos hoy. Este tipo de ansiedad afecta a 15 millones de americanos en un año determinado. A diferencia de algunos otros problemas psicológicos, ansiedad social no es bien entendido por el público en general o por médicos y profesionales de la salud mental, tales como médicos, psiquiatras, psicólogos, terapeutas, trabajadores sociales y consejeros. De hecho, las personas con ansiedad social se diagnostica casi el 90% del tiempo. Las personas con fobia social venir a nuestra clínica de ansiedad etiquetados como "esquizofrénico", "maníaco-depresivo", "clínicamente deprimidos", "trastornos de pánico" y "personalidad desordenada", entre otros misdiagnoses perjudicial.
Porque pocos socialmente ansiosos personas han oído hablar de su problema, y nunca han visto lo discutido en cualquier medio de comunicación, como los talk shows de televisión, piensan que son los únicos en todo el mundo que tienen estos terribles síntomas. Por lo tanto, deben guardar silencio acerca de ellos. Sería terrible si todo el mundo di cuenta de lo mucho que la ansiedad experimentada en la vida cotidiana. Entonces lo que la gente piensa acerca de ellos? Lamentablemente, sin algún tipo de educación, conocimiento, y el tratamiento adecuado, la fobia social / fobia social sigue causando estragos a lo largo de su vida. Agregando a este dilema, cuando una persona con ansiedad social, finalmente se levanta el valor de buscar ayuda, las posibilidades que pueden encontrar que son muy, muy delgado.
Haciendo que la situación más difícil es que la ansiedad social no van y vienen, como algunos otros problemas físicos y psicológicos. Si tiene ansiedad social ...... un día lo tienes todos los días para el resto de su vida .....
Los sentimientos que le he descrito al principio del artículo son las de las personas con trastorno de ansiedad social. Es decir, sus síntomas se aplican a la mayoría de eventos sociales y las funciones en casi todos los ámbitos de la vida. Yo sufría de ansiedad social a mí mismo durante veinte años antes de que yo nunca vi la expresión o leer acerca de sus síntomas en un libro. (El primer libro que aborda concretamente la fobia social no se publicó hasta la década de 1990.)
Al igual que con todos los problemas, cada uno con ansiedad social ligeramente diferentes síntomas secundarios. Algunas personas, por ejemplo, no puede escribir en público por temor a que la gente está mirando y su mano temblar. Otros son muy introvertida y que resulta demasiado difícil mantener un puesto de trabajo. Todavía otros tienen graves acerca de la ansiedad de comer o beber en presencia de otras personas. Algunas personas con fobia social sienten que una parte de su cuerpo (como la cara o el cuello) son especialmente "extraño mirar" y ser vulnerables a la miraba. Otras experimentan un espasmo muscular (generalmente alrededor del cuello y los hombros) y se convierte en el centro de su enfoque --- "es tan vergonzoso que si alguien ve que voy a ser humillados para siempre!"
Una cosa que todas las personas socialmente ansioso compartir es el conocimiento de que sus pensamientos y miedos son básicamente irracional. Es decir, las personas con fobia social que otros no son realmente juzgar o evaluar críticamente todo el tiempo. Ellos entienden que la gente no está tratando de humillar o avergonzar a ellos. Se dan cuenta de que sus pensamientos y sentimientos son algo exagerado e irracional. Sin embargo, a pesar de este conocimiento racional, que siguen a sentir diferente.
Es automático de estos "sentimientos" y los pensamientos que se producen en torno a las situaciones sociales que deben cumplirse y conquistó en la terapia. Por lo general, estos sentimientos de ansiedad están vinculadas a pensamientos que están entrelazados en un círculo vicioso de expectativas negativas y la evaluación negativa. Se trata de una situación de captura-22: no hay manera de salir sin el tratamiento adecuado.
Aquí viene la parte buena.
¿Cómo puede la ansiedad social se trata? Muchos métodos terapéuticos se han estudiado, pero la terapia cognitivo-conductual es la única modalidad que se ha demostrado su eficacia. De hecho, el tratamiento de la ansiedad social a través de métodos cognitivo-conductual tiene la capacidad de producir a largo plazo, permanente alivio de la ansiedad del mundo cargado de ansiedad social.
Ansiedad social responde a relativamente corto plazo, dependiendo de la gravedad de la enfermedad. He visto un progreso significativo en apenas doce sesiones individuales, aunque la mayoría de la gente responde mejor con dieciséis a veinte y cuatro reuniones. Para superar la ansiedad social, la terminación de un grupo de terapia conductual es también esencial (cuando las personas se sienten preparados para ello y no antes).
¿Qué socialmente ansiosos la gente no es necesario años y años de terapia o asesoramiento. No puede ser "aconsejada" de la fobia social. De hecho, socialmente ansiosos personas que se les enseña a "analizar" y "rumiar" sobre sus problemas suelen hacer que sus temores y ansiedad social mucho peor, que a su vez conduce a la depresión, que sólo refuerza el hecho de que "Nunca mejor" . (.. Shudder. esta declaración no tiene que ser verdad.)
Hay una mejor vida para todas las personas con ansiedad social. Sin tratamiento, la ansiedad social es una horrible tortura y emocional, con el tratamiento, su corteza es peor que su mordida. Añadir a esto que la investigación actual está claro que la terapia cognitivo-conductual es un gran éxito en el tratamiento de la ansiedad social. De hecho, las personas que no tienen éxito son los que no son persistentes en su práctica y que no pegan con los métodos y técnicas sencillas en el hogar. Ellos son los que se rinda.
Si una persona está motivada para poner fin a los años y años de agobiante ansiedad, entonces el tratamiento cognitivo-conductual dispone de los métodos, técnicas y estrategias que se reúnen para reducir la ansiedad y hacer del mundo un lugar mucho más agradable.
Muchos de nosotros hemos sido a través de la agobiante constante ansiedad y temor que produce la fobia social - y han salido más saludable y más feliz en el otro lado. Usted también puede.
--- Thomas A. Richards, Ph.D.Psychologist
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