15 million people in the United States alone have social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is the fear of being in a social situation that involves being around other people. Any person has a 13% chance of developing social anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Teens are highly likely to develop this disorder. Social anxiety disorder is a life-changing disorder that affects the way people think, act, and how they are treated. Social Anxiety Disorder, also known as social phobia, is a type of panic disorder in which a person has a constant fear of being judged by others, being the center of attention, or being watched while doing certain activities. Social phobia can be triggered by having to speak to new …show more content…
Exposure therapy is when a person is instructed to stay in the situation they fear with the hope that they will no longer have that particular fear. For example, if someone had the fear of going to Walmart on black Friday, exposure therapy would mean that the person with that fear would go to Walmart on black Friday and walk around until they no longer have that fear. This form of therapy has been highly criticized and there have been studies that show, more often than not, this type of therapy actually heightens the fear instead of decreasing it. (Rodebaugh 2004)
One more commonly practiced method for curing social anxiety disorder is social skills training. Social skills training is used to teach and improve a person’s social skills. This type of therapy is usually done in a group setting. This is not effective in all cases because sometimes, people with social phobia have perfectly normal social skills and their anxiety is being caused by something completely different. (Rodebaugh …show more content…
I would be anxious before I even left the house, and it would escalate as I got closer to a college class, a party, or whatever. I would feel sick in my stomach- it almost felt like I had the flu. My heart would pound, my palms would get sweaty, and I would get this feeling of being removed from myself and from everybody else. When I would walk into a room full of people, I would turn red and it would feel lie everybody’s eyes were on me. I was embarrassed to stand off in a corner by myself, but I could not think of anything to say to anybody. It was humiliating. I felt so clumsy. I could not wait to get