Anyone who suffers from social anxiety knows how hard it is to live a normal life with this disorder. Many people put off treating social anxiety because they are afraid or ashamed. They often try and deal with it on their own and minimize the effect it is having on their life. It is important to get help for treating social anxiety and you have a lot of choices. Some people take medication for their social anxiety and others are helped by therapy.
What Treatment is Right for You?
You will need to carefully weigh your options for treating social anxiety. What will work for you is not the same as what will work for another person. Depending on how much your life is affected and how severe your anxiety symptoms are, your treatment will start out differently than others. A doctor should be involved in this decision and he can make a recommendation based on how you are coping with the disorder right now and what you should be doing. Alcohol and other mood altering substances are not the answer.
You will have to answer a lot of frank and personal questions when you talk to your doctor about your social anxiety so be prepared. The doctor needs to find out how you are doing and if you are self-medicating with drugs or alcohol. He also will ask about your ways of acting differently to try to deal with the anxiety so he knows what he is dealing with. If you are not coping well, your doctor will need to retrain you to deal with the anxiety effectively. Another thing your doctor will ask about is what situations and events cause you anxiety. He needs to know this in order to help you and decide on the right way in treating anxiety for you.
Most people get better results if they use medication and therapy together instead of one or the other. Combining the two is a great way to treat general anxiety disorder, which is a form of social phobia. If you have a mild case of social anxiety, it won’t take too long before you see results and you can eventually terminate treatment. For more severe cases, a lifetime of treatment may be necessary.
It can be scary to think about treating social anxiety but remember that others are going through the same thing. It is worth the work and effort it takes to overcome your fears and life a full, happy life.
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