Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder

Getting Help for Social Fears and Anxiety

At the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety we are committed to using empirically-supported treatments. This means that the strategies we use have been proven, through research, to be effective for most people. Specifically, we use cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat anxiety disorders including SAD. For the treatment of SAD, therapists address the thought processes involved in the patient's fear that others are always negatively judging them. They help patients recognize that this belief is caused by their own anxiety and not what other people are really thinking. Treatment usually lasts somewhere between 10 and 20 sessions, depending on the motivation of the patient and severity of the disorder.

Exposure Therapy

Part of this therapy includes something called in vivo (real life) exposure therapy, in which clinicians work with patients to seek the specific situations that they find particularly anxiety provoking. This part of therapy can seem very scary for many patients. However, as the patient is exposed to these situations more frequently and at longer intervals, the patient's anxiety naturally decreases. When this happens, these situations are no longer associated with discomfort and fear and therefore the patient does not feel the need to avoid them.

Specific Situations a CTSA Therapist May Work With a SAD Patient to Encounter:

• Shaking hands, making eye contact, and talking with another clinician at the CTSA
• Walking through a crowded cafeteria
• Writing and sending an email with deliberate spelling mistakes to a family member

Self-help treatment

There is a collection of books about Social Anxiety Disorder that offer potentially useful self-help techniques. Many books are written for a wide range of readers and address both clinical and non-clinical social anxiety. Nonetheless, the general aim is to help individuals manage and transform their disorder by furthering their own self-awareness and understanding. Self-help materials may provide some relief but research indicates that professional treatment is more effective. To the right are some self-help books for Social Anxiety Disorder that are well-studied and effective.