Social Anxiety: Symptoms and Treatment
What is social anxiety?
While it is not uncommon to have some anxiety before attending important social events, people with social anxiety experience a debilitating degree of discomfort, self-doubt, and self-judgment, often causing significant distress and loss of daily functioning. Also known as Social Phobia, Social Anxiety Disorder is a very common anxiety disorder that causes significant and recurring fear in social settings. Social Anxiety is a struggle that affects 15 million adults, or 6.8% of the U.S. population.
Social Anxiety Tests and Diagnosis
A part of social anxiety treatment involves a thorough functional assessment of the symptoms social anxiety causes. This includes appropriate tests for social anxiety. Clinicians commonly test for social anxiety using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Social Phobia Inventory, and Brief Social Phobia Scale. These assessments test social anxiety and how it presents in one’s daily functioning.
Social Anxiety Symptoms
Symptoms of social anxiety are not always the same for each person. One person may experience a social anxiety symptom that only focuses on being judged in small social settings, while thriving on the “big stage” in front of thousands of people. Others may be completely comfortable in small settings, but have social anxiety that targets one-on-one interactions or interactions with people of seniority, etc.
The list below are symptoms for social anxiety, but please note that you do not need to have all of these struggles to have social anxiety.
- Fear of being judged negatively by others.
- Fear of being compared to and seen as “less than”, by others.
- Fear of demonstrating symptoms of anxiety (blushing, sweating, stammering, shaking etc).
- Fear of having a panic attack (or anxiety attack) in front of others.
- Fear of experiencing embarrassment in front of others.
Social Anxiety Treatment and Therapy options
Like many anxiety disorders, Social Anxiety is successfully treated using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness. Treatment involves learning how to identify distorted thoughts and restructure them into more reasonable and rational thoughts. This is commonly called Cognitive Therapy.
Treatment for Social Anxiety and Social Phobia also involves Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a component of Behavioral Therapy used to help clients desensitize their fears. This treatment is incredibly empowering, as it helps the person with social anxiety see that they can tolerate their fears and not allow fear to stop them from engaging in activities that they value.
Using a fear hierarchy, the client slowly practices facing their fears while using mindfulness tools to manage their anxiety instead of engaging in compulsive behaviors.
Mindfulness, another science-based treatment modality, helps the person with social phobia manage their thoughts, feelings, sensations and behaviors. Mindfulness helps recognize that thoughts are not facts and helps with awareness of one’s thoughts.
Lastly, the treatment for social anxiety can also include social skills training. Social skills training for social anxiety involves helping the person with social anxiety develop helpful tools and practices to use when they are in their feared situations. This may involve practicing conversation starters, introducing oneself to strangers, and giving eye contact to people in social settings. These social skills can help people who have social symptoms of anxiety such as avoidance or eye contact, stuttering, avoidance of speaking in fear of being judged etc.
Social Anxiety Treatment and Therapy Options
Like many anxiety disorders, Social Anxiety is successfully treated using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Mindfulness. Treatment involves learning how to identify distorted thoughts and restructure them into more reasonable and rational thoughts. This is commonly called Cognitive Therapy.
Treatment for Social Anxiety and Social Phobia also involves Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a component of Behavioral Therapy used to help clients desensitize their fears. This treatment is incredibly empowering, as it helps the person with social anxiety see that they can tolerate their fears and not allow fear to stop them from engaging in activities that they value.
Using a fear hierarchy, the client slowly practices facing their fears while using mindfulness tools to manage their anxiety instead of engaging in compulsive behaviors.
Mindfulness, another science-based treatment modality, helps the person with social phobia manage their thoughts, feelings, sensations and behaviors. Mindfulness helps recognize that thoughts are not facts and helps with awareness of one’s thoughts.
Lastly, the treatment for social anxiety can also include social skills training. Social skills training for social anxiety involves helping the person with social anxiety develop helpful tools and practices to use when they are in their feared situations. This may involve practicing conversation starters, introducing oneself to strangers, and giving eye contact to people in social settings. These social skills can help people who have social symptoms of anxiety such as avoidance or eye contact, stuttering, avoidance of speaking in fear of being judged etc.
