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Have you experienced what it must be like
meeting your big boss for the first time? The thought of being watched by
your superior while working is stressful, isn’t it? Or, maybe you are so
anxious to go to a beach party because you have not shed enough pounds to
wear the two-piece swim suit (who knows how many years have them!), and you
are so worried on what the people might say if you wear them with those
excess baggage wrapping around your body?
Those feelings are normal.
As long as you have reasons to be anxious about anything, it is
perfectly normal. But, if the anxiety is eating you up and you become
anxious about what other people might say, or think, or do to you, which you
know does not have rational basis, and the worst part is, you find it
difficult to control your thoughts or emotions, that is social anxiety.
Social anxiety or social phobia is one of
the largest mental health care problems in the word in the present day. A
person with social anxiety simply spends time alone, closeted, away from
people. They tend to choose to be alone than to be around with other people
for fear that they might not fit in some ways or the other.
Even when they
are with familiar people, they may still feel overwhelmed and have the
feeling that every movement and thought they made have been constantly
watched or criticized. The feeling of being observed or being misjudged is
one of the things that keep them away from people.
People with social anxiety are often
misdiagnosed and are usually labeled as schizophrenic, manic-depressive,
among other detrimental misdiagnoses. Even though recently knowledge
and information about social anxiety disorder has improved, people who
experience it tend to feel alone while suffering
from the disturbing symptoms.
The tendency is to withdraw, not
seeking help, and so social anxiety continues to impair lives. One thing
that seems common to all socially anxious
people is that they feel their thoughts and fears
are irrational. This in turn leads them to feel that people are judging and criticizing them
even when it is not the case.
Even knowing that their thoughts, doubts, and feelings are exaggerated and irrational
may not help someone learn to control them.
The good thing is that social anxiety is curable. There are many therapeutic
methods which have been studied. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the
one method that has been known to work effectively. Actually, the
treatment of social phobia through cognitive-behavioral methods has the
capacity to produce long-term, permanent relief to sufferers of social
phobia.
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