Overcome Social Phobias: Getting Rid of Social Phobia

In the circle of society, there are mainly two types of people:  the social butterflies and the clams.  As the term so indicates, social butterflies are people who are very much comfortable in social gatherings they can fly from one table to another with ease and without experiencing any fear, anxiety or panic attacks. These people are so sure of themselves they are practically brimming with utmost self-confidence. Clams, on the other hand, may very well fit those people who are shy around a crowd.

 If they can do so, they will avoid all means of social interaction and will rather choose to sit around in their own comfort zones.  They fear the thought of mingling with people they do not know or people they know but are not comfortable to be around with.  The fear may sometimes be so bad it could worsen and turn into what is called social phobia. 

Social phobia may therefore be appropriately defined as an extreme psychological fear of people in general.  There is fear in being around people or simply talking to them.  People who are afraid to walk down the length of a street fearing that other people will look at them, those who are afraid to make phone calls or even answer them, and those who practically tremble in fear when in a large crowd are only some examples of people with social phobia.  Oftentimes, social phobia has crippling effects on one’s emotion.  It becomes a must, therefore, to avoid it as much as possible. 

There are many approaches that may be done to avoid social phobia.  One of these can be very difficult to accomplish as it involves facing the fear head-on.  For people who are afraid to go out to parties, for instance, may learn to face their fear exactly by going to one.  This is called desensitization.  Here, the individual is given a series of exercises that will enable her to picture herself in a party before she is allowed to actually go to one.  At first, the individual may go out with only a couple of her friends.  But after several parties, she may already find herself getting more comfortable with a larger crowd. 

In most extreme cases, however, the most effective approaches in avoiding social phobia may require the services of a professional therapist.  These approaches include cognitive behavioural therapy, cognitive group behavioural therapy, and medications.  Determining which of these therapies work best for a particular person depends on the individual needs of that person.  Usually, it is the professional therapist who determines this.

Cognitive behavioural therapy delves deep into the root cause of the problem.  It seeks to analyze the main reason why a person behaves or things in the way he does.  Cognitive group behavioural therapy, on the other hand, is similar to cognitive behavioural therapy only that it involves a group of people who have the same problem.  Sometimes, if neither works effectively, the professional therapist may prescribe medications to control the problem.