Social Anxiety Disorder: Definition and Management Methods

For someone who suffers from social anxiety, certain interactions with others can often feel like a life or death situation. When danger presents itself to the human body, our adrenal system kicks in and we are presented with two clear options — “fight or flight.”

For those without any anxiety disorder, this response could be triggered by a serious and immediate threat to your life – such as being confronted by a bear in the woods.

The “fight or flight” response is a wonderful thing — it alerts us to the presence of danger, and gives us the chance to get out of there alive! But for those who suffer from social anxiety, the relentless pumping of adrenaline around their bodies can be utterly exhausting.

What is social anxiety disorder?

Social anxiety disorder consists of a fear that others will judge oneself and/or evaluate us negatively, leading to the avoidance of social situations as a way of coping with frightening anxious feelings. A palpable fear of situations that you feel will lead to embarrassment or judgment by others is often a key trigger.

Others who are suffering from social anxiety may seek to endure the situations that trigger their symptoms, but will likely find themselves becoming exhausted due to the excessive expenditure of energy required.

There is a direct link between social anxiety disorder and lower quality of life that may cause people to drop out of school, be less productive at work, and ultimately find themselves in a lower income bracket (Edmund Bourne, Ph.D. 2015). The official diagnosis of social anxiety disorder involves fear that persists for six months or more.

Methods for Managing Social Anxiety Disorder

This type of anxiety can be treated and must not be ignored. Of course, some level of anxiety is natural and can even be helpful to challenge us in certain situations, but when it gets out of hand, help is required so that it can be effectively managed.

The first step toward management is to put together a plan for recovery. This might include Christian counseling, consulting books about different treatments and gaining support from friends and family. Effective treatments include relaxation training, changing core beliefs, exposure tasks and practicing personal assertiveness.

Relaxation Training

We are all capable of becoming very sensitive to our surroundings. Every person has some level of angst within them that always runs the risk of boiling over. But those with social anxiety are often at a constant level of anxiety that tends to spike when they are in situations that scare them. People suffering from a social anxiety disorder are likely to have experienced a past social situation that humiliated them.

Training in relaxation is a very important element in the treatment of social anxiety disorder since it helps lower the general level of anxiety and internal arousal, calming the person down. The relaxation response is completely opposite to the body’s adrenaline-fuelled fight or flight reaction.

Relaxation training can help lower: heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, muscle tension, oxygen consumption, and analytical thinking. Indeed, when everything slows down a bit, you will begin to feel more relaxed and less anxious.

When we are relaxed we have a tendency to perform better. A person with lowered anxiety is far more likely to effectively deal with a particular social situation that has a history of going badly.

Methods include guided imagery, tai chi, yoga, abdominal breathing, and progressive relaxation of the muscles. Twenty to thirty minutes every day of relaxation therapy can produce incredible results. Relaxation training is one method of turning down a person’s anxiety level they are freed up to face situations that they have gotten used to avoiding.

Changing Core Beliefs

Our thinking is directly related to how well we cope with certain social situations. The greater the negativity or the more extreme your thoughts are the higher the level of anxiety you will generate.

One of the ways you can combat this is to change your core beliefs. If you are no longer convinced that every social situation is going to be a total disaster, you will not generate as much anxiety in anticipation of that event.

The goal when treating any social anxiety disorder is to reduce anxiety levels so to enable the person to more freely interact in situations that were previously avoided. For example, you may have a fear of giving a presentation at work.

Perhaps this is because you have been unfairly criticized for your style in the past. Since that incident, and despite being highly capable, you may feel as if you are incapable of delivering a good presentation, and may believe that it is going to be an utter disaster and that you will be publicly embarrassed. So how will you move forward and try again?

Edmund Bourne, Ph.D. recommends five key questions for challenging false beliefs and lowering anxiety:

1. What is the evidence for this belief? Looking objectively at all your life experience, what is the evidence that this is true?
2. Does this belief invariably or always hold true for you?
3. Does this belief look at the whole picture? Does it take into account both positive and negative ramifications?
4. Does this belief promote your well-being and/or peace of mind?
5. Did you choose this belief on your own, or did it develop out of your experience growing up in your family?

Carefully working through these questions is a very important step toward developing a healthier mindset when approaching anxiety-inducing situations. Shifting your core beliefs will enable you to face those scary situations with boldness and an increased confidence.

Exposure Tasks

Phobias come about because of sensitization. The sufferer is taught to associate a particular experience (such as public speaking) with a sudden onset of anxiety. Because this was a terrifying experience they avoid it entirely.

In avoiding the experience, the person gets their reward by ridding themselves of the anxiety. However, as they avoid the stimulus more and more, the anxiety response becomes even more powerful when the person is actually faced with the activity they have been avoiding.

Patterns of anxiety can become ingrained in a person’s psyche. But there is hope! The brain can be “rewired” by facing your fears and lowering your sensitization.

Edmund Bourne, Ph.D., in his Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, describes how the re-wiring process works:

“Exposure is the process of unlearning the connection between anxiety and a particular situation. For exposure to occur, you need to enter a phobic situation directly, letting your anxiety rise and enduring the anxiety for a period of time to learn that you can actually handle your anxiety in a situation you’ve been accustomed to avoiding.

“The point is to 1) unlearn a connection between a phobic situation (such as driving on the freeway) and an anxiety response, and 2) gain confidence in your ability to handle the situation regardless of whether anxiety comes up. Repeatedly entering the situation will eventually allow you to overcome your previous avoidance.”

An effective way of entering into exposure therapy is to break the specific situation down into bite-size chunks. This will help the sufferer face each part of the anxiety-inducing situation as a stand-alone challenge.

Facing your worst fears directly and all at the same time is likely to be completely overwhelming and may only cause a negative effect on your long-term anxiety. But if it is dealt with in stages, it can greatly help anxiety sufferers to deal with their phobias.

Personal Assertiveness Practice

Assertive communication is defined as a direct, non-reactive, clear, concise and honest way of expressing yourself. Assertiveness allows an anxiety sufferer to “take back control” of their personal self-determination and avoids awkwardness or miscommunication that may result in an increase in social anxiety.

Assertive communication is made up of a few key elements: identifying what you need, describing the facts, sharing how you feel, making personal requests, and listing positive reasons for complying with the request.

For example, instead of taking on a huge burden of responsibility alongside lots of other important commitments, you may be wise to request a smaller role and have the bounds of your tasks explained in detail so that you can prepare. Saying “yes” to everything is likely to cause greater stress and an increase in anxiety – plus, people-pleasing is never healthy.

Asking to be given notice of things is also a very good example. Many of those who suffer from social anxiety struggle with having plans “sprung” on them, or being asked to do things last-minute.

If a friend of yours keeps doing this without any regard for your wellbeing, you should be assertive and calmly explain your situation to them, with a request that they give you adequate notice before asking for an additional commitment.

Social anxiety can be an incredibly complex condition. Obviously, one article could not possibly convey every single aspect of effective treatment. The point is that there is hope and help for those who suffer from this anxiety disorder.

Those suffering from social anxiety disorder should not feel as if their lives will always be limited by their fears. Recovery is a strong possibility. If you, or someone you know, struggles with social anxiety disorder, please get in touch – we have many excellent counselors who can help you create a plan for recovery and encourage you on your journey of transformation and freedom.