Treating Social Anxiety Disorder

Cognitive-behavioral Therapy

With this type of therapy, a therapist may:

• Help you change phobic and other negative thought patterns and behaviors.
• Teach you to control anxiety symptoms through deep breathing, visualization, and meditation .
• Suggest changes of your social environment to minimize perceived stress. This may be helpful in the short term, but it is far better to learn to cope with all social situations rather than rely on ways to avoid them.
• Gradually expose you to feared situations in a controlled environment.

Due to the social nature of this disorder, nonthreatening peer support groups may be helpful in overcoming your phobia.

Medication

• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can relieve symptoms of anxiety and the depression that sometimes accompanies social anxiety. ***
• Benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants (gabapentin, pregabalin), and monoamine oxidase inhibitors can relieve anxiety and depression.
• Beta-blockers can stop the physical symptoms of panic and anxiety (used to relieve the performance anxiety that often occurs with social anxiety disorder).

***Please note FDA Public Health Advisory for Antidepressants:

The FDA advises that people taking antidepressants should be closely observed. For some, the medications have been linked to worsening symptoms and suicidal thoughts. These adverse effects are most common in young adults. The effects tend to occur at the beginning of treatment or when there is an increase or decrease in the dose.Although the warning is for all antidepressants, of most concern are the SSRI class such as:

• Prozac ( fluoxetine ), Zoloft ( sertraline ), Paxil ( paroxetine ), Luvox ( fluvoxamine ), Celexa ( citalopram ), Lexapro( escitalopram )