Medication Social Anxiety
Social Anxiety – An Overview
Social anxiety disorder is basically a social phobia in which the patient remains trapped in a fear that he/she will make a mistake if asked to make a social encounter. The disorder makes the patient excessively and unreasonably afraid of social encounters and people. The patient hesitates to get social avoids going out. People with social phobia or social anxiety remains mostly isolated and are rarely seen in public gatherings.
Social phobia or social anxiety can be commonly observed in kids and teenagers than in adults. Bullying in schools or being ridiculed by friends or classmates can often cause social phobia. Social phobia often occurs due to social factors and there are few evidences showing that the disorder is caused due to neural dysfunction.
Symptoms of social phobia often include hesitation to eat in front of people, sitting in the back seats of the class, not being very active in the class discussions, writing or reading in front of people, escaping from social encounters – even avoidance of using public toilets.
Social anxiety can cause serious social problems and living with it is not bearable. It is thus very important to treat social anxiety effectively.
Treatment of Social Anxiety
There are many treatment options which are deployed by the psychiatrists to reduce social anxiety. The treatment includes medication, therapies, and hypnosis. Often therapies and medication are employed together to treat social anxiety as a combination has lasting effects than medication or therapy alone.
Therapies to treat social anxiety
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the widely employed therapies to treat social anxiety. The therapist tries to find out the fear of the patient and then suggests him ways to reduce that fear. For instance: those who are afraid of speaking in front of someone are often asked to practice speeches or presentation in front of mirror or imagine if he is actually standing in front of an audience using meditation.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a psycho-therapy in which the patient is brought into a finely tuned state of awareness. It is also called bringing some into trance. The therapist then tries to suggest the patient how to overcome his fears. Such therapies are often used to treat phobias, trepidation, and stress.
Medication for social anxiety
The medication for social anxiety mainly involves Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and Selective serotonin & norepinephrine inhibitors (SNRIs). Both the drugs are active psycho elements which exert control and inhibit the neural functioning. Other medication for social anxiety includes Dopaminergic drugs and monoamine oxidase inhibitors.
The traditional Tricyclic anti-depressants are also recommended to treat social anxiety. Your doctor decides which drug would be most suitable for your condition.
Anxiety Meds: Celexa Citalopram
Also, I have never really taken medication ever before. Most likely will I suffer from the side effects more than anyone else? I know different people react differently but I am very anxious to know.
Social Anxiety
Anyway, I was curious whether anyone else at the AN has social anxiety, whether they have received treatment/medication of any kind, whether any books were useful, and whether they have decreased their anxiety over time.
Is Lexapro effective in Social Anxiety
I know Lexapro isn’t FDA approved to treat SAD (social anxiety disorder) or PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), but I’ve been recently prescribed this. Any SSRI would help wouldn’t it?
Mail this post