What is Social Phobia/Social Anxiety?
Suppose you had to go out alone. You had small jobs.. You got your work done. Then you realized that you were hungry. You had to sit alone in a restaurant… You sat down, chose your food, called the waiter and gave your order.
When you imagine this situation, it may seem impossible for you to go out alone.. Doing your business.. Sitting in a restaurant alone to eat after getting hungry.. Ordering the waiter..
For people with social phobia, exhibiting these behaviors is pure torture. Even the imaginary possibility may be enough to frighten them. It’s not just this situation; presenting at school, attending a meeting, asking your opinion at the meeting, meeting new people, flirting with the opposite sex..
People with social phobia feel physically flushed, sweating, palpitations, shortness of breath, trembling, muscle tension, and butterflies in the stomach in such situations. The fears of social phobia clients; I will be disgraced, I will do something wrong, everyone will laugh at me, my wrong and ridiculous situation will not be forgotten for a lifetime and everyone will make fun of me. But their real BIGGEST fear is the understanding of their social phobia. In other words, realizing that their hands and knees are trembling is an understanding of their intense anxiety and uneasiness. People with social phobia show avoidance behavior from such situations so that these physical and mental symptoms are not understood. They do not enter new environments, they do not express their opinions at meetings, they do not go to a restaurant alone to eat, they do not flirt.
However, when you look at it, this intense anxiety, that is, your social phobia, causes you to miss many opportunities that life offers you. Isn’t it time to put a stop to this, realize your own potential and make people realize it?
It is possible for the treatment to progress in a good and healthy way when we apply the social phobia clients to the basis of their fears and anxieties in therapy, confront them and expose them.
Psychologist Beyza AKÇALI
