Social Anxiety Disorders: The Disease Model

The “disease model” focuses on the biological and medical aspects of mental illness, as opposed to the cognitive or humanistic models which focus more on a person’s behavior or values. However, the disease model may not apply to every instance of mental illness, because it often expects that “all human behavior can be explained in biological terms and treated with biological methods” (Comer, 2015). Before one can address the application of the disease model to mental illness and discuss the specific qualities of this model that determine this application, one must first define disease as an individual concept.
While Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines disease as “a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs

Considering the disease model depends heavily on the basis that the disorder can be both explained and treated biologically/medically, it does not apply very well to social anxiety disorder. While social anxiety disorder can display biological symptoms, such as physical distress with an elevated heart rate, trembling, etc., the majority of the defining symptoms of the disorder are based on behavioral patterns and indicators. Therefore, the best treatments for social anxiety disorder typically falls within the behavioral or cognitive model, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This form of treatment focuses on the individual’s behavior, and works to shift that behavior with training and therapy, not typically with medication, displaying that the disease model does not fit this disorder as well as the cognitive or behavioral model. This however may not apply to every individual with social anxiety disorder, because as was illustrated above, these definitions and models are not static and can very easily change depending on the specific case of an

Cynthia is demonstrating abnormal behavior partially caused by the pressures and dynamics of her family life, which would be best treated within the cognitive-behavioral model possibly by ACT or CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy). Since her disorder does not fit the disease model, I would not recommend any drug therapy or medication, and instead would develop a therapy plan oriented around her behavior and dealing with the anxiety caused specifically by her family dynamic. Her fear of social situations and rejection appear to stem from her relationship with her parents, in which her father has never really supported her and doesn’t agree with her academic goals, and her mother in her best efforts to help her fit in has spent a lifetime correcting Cynthia’s behavior meticulously, causing for her to be unhealthily self-aware. Since a large part of her culture stems from not disrespecting your parents, Cynthia’s anxiety is partially caused by the fear of upsetting her parents, especially her father, with her life goals of becoming a doctor, and also by the tendency to put her desires second, despite the awareness of her personal goals, creating anxiety in fear of not fulfilling her parent’s