Social Anxiety Essay

Social Anxiety? Do This!

Standing in line at Target about to buy napkins, you are blushing with sweat all over your face, and feeling shaky. You have shortness of breath and have the thought of “everyone is looking at me”; clearly you need some type of treatment for the social anxiety you are experiencing. Many adults struggle with social anxiety and are not informed about the treatment options available. There are numerous effective treatments for social anxiety: medications, self-help techniques, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. It is important to know the right information and get help because there is nothing healthy and normal about having extreme physical anxiety symptoms and thoughts while simply waiting in line to buy napkins.

Treatment

The first self-help technique is facing a boy’s or girl’s fears, which mostly involves facing social situations he or she has been avoiding. This can be seen when a woman has to go to an office to fill out some papers but keeps postponing it because it is a new place for her and she does not know what to expect. It is bad to avoid someone’s fears because it “keeps social anxiety going”(Smith). Furthermore, people who avoid nerve-wracking situations can help themselves feel better in the short term, but it prevents them from “becoming more comfortable in social situations and learning how to cope”(Smith). For example, I have a friend who would always avoid going to school because of her social anxiety, it was a bad decision since her grades reflected negatively on that short term relief. People need to face their fears because if they do not, it can “prevent [them] from sharing [their] ideas at work, standing out in a classroom or making new friends”(Smith). I strongly believe that it is important to have the experiences in a classroom and being able to share your ideas, stand out, and make new friends, because sooner or later you will get a feeling of regret for not allowing yourself to do something new. The second self-help technique is learning how to control one 's breath, which is necessary when a person starts to breath quickly in social situations. I experience fast pace breathing sometimes when I am talking to someone whom I do not know, and it becomes difficult for the person to understand what I am saying.The breathing exercise that helps keep the person calm during social situations involves five