How To Find Help for Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety, as well as the other anxiety disorders, can be successfully treated. In seeking help for this problem, search for a specialist -- someone who (a) understands this problem well and (b) knows from experience how to treat it.

Become an informed client and ask questions. For example, does the therapist understand that you feel very self-conscious and that others are watching and forming a negative evaluation about you? – or do they minimize what you’re saying and just say, "No, No, No, you’re fine ... you're just exaggerating...." or expect you to go out and do unreasonable "exposures"?

It is true that we who have lived through social anxiety do realize our mind is many times irrational and we over-exaggerate, but it still FEELS like others are watching and judging us. Our self-consciousness is a feeling and it is very real.

If your psychologist/mental health care worker does not understand this, you know more than they do about social anxiety.  Under these circumstances, it is very doubtful they will be able to help you.

Also, remember that the professional should always welcome your questions. If someone seems unfriendly or too clinical, they should not be your choice of a therapist. 

Those of us who have (or have had) social anxiety need support, encouragement, and a relatively stress-free environment while we are in therapy that will permanently change our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and our lives.

Does your therapist say, "Face your fears and they’ll go away?"

Sorry, but this therapist does not understand the dynamics of social anxiety. We, as people with social anxiety, haveconstantly faced our fears ever since birth – we’ve had to – and we feel more fearful now than we did in the past.

In this case, seek another therapist. It is imperative you find a psychologist who understands social anxiety disorder completely – because if they don’t even know what it is – how will they know what to do to help you overcome it?

Getting over social anxiety disorder is not an easy task, nor is it a difficult one.  Many thousands of people have already done it.

While you’re in the middle of the social anxiety syndrome, it feels hopeless – it feels that you’ll never  get any better.Life is just one gut-wrenching anxiety problem after another. 

But this can be stopped, quenched, and killed in a relatively short period of time – by finding a cognitive-behavioral therapist who understands and specializes in the treatment of social anxiety.