Social Phobia Or Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
Fear is a very normal part of the human experience; it helps us to avoid situations that may cause great harm or distress. There are times, however when this fear can become excessive, so much to the point that it prevents individuals from participating in normal everyday situations. These fears are known as Phobias. Phobias can be defined as an overwhelming fear of an object or situation that poses small danger but invokes anxiety and avoidance. (Psychology Encyclopedia, 2016) While there are many types of phobias, we will only focus on Social phobia or social anxiety disorder. Social Phobia, or Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as the fear of being judged by others and feeling
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Studies have been performed to validate if an unconditioned stimulus such as humiliating experiences or insulting comments are causation for phobias such as Social Anxiety Disorder. Stressful or traumatic situations such as dealing with public humiliation or rejection from a friend or loved one, may lead to the onset of SAD. Individuals that are predisposed to SAD are found to have more sensitivity to the stressors in social situations and tend to more negative emotions and reactions as a result of defective thought process. (Farmer, Kashdan, 2015)
Normally a person may not react to a stressful or traumatic social event and continue to engage in social activities, not linking their feelings of embarrassment to an person or place, and eventually dismiss the feeling entirely, while a person that is affected with SAD will tend to hold on to the feelings of humiliation and relate it to a specific event, place or person and have feelings of extreme anxiety even at the thought of being near that person, place or …show more content…
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy involves two processes that may be used in conjunction or separately; Exposure therapy and Response Prevention. Exposure therapy allows the afflicted patient to be exposure repetitively to the adverse conditioned stimulus as a way to desensitize them to the feelings of anxiety. (Meuret, Wolitzky-Taylor, Twohig, Craske,
Studies have been performed to validate if an unconditioned stimulus such as humiliating experiences or insulting comments are causation for phobias such as Social Anxiety Disorder. Stressful or traumatic situations such as dealing with public humiliation or rejection from a friend or loved one, may lead to the onset of SAD. Individuals that are predisposed to SAD are found to have more sensitivity to the stressors in social situations and tend to more negative emotions and reactions as a result of defective thought process. (Farmer, Kashdan, 2015)
Normally a person may not react to a stressful or traumatic social event and continue to engage in social activities, not linking their feelings of embarrassment to an person or place, and eventually dismiss the feeling entirely, while a person that is affected with SAD will tend to hold on to the feelings of humiliation and relate it to a specific event, place or person and have feelings of extreme anxiety even at the thought of being near that person, place or …show more content…
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy involves two processes that may be used in conjunction or separately; Exposure therapy and Response Prevention. Exposure therapy allows the afflicted patient to be exposure repetitively to the adverse conditioned stimulus as a way to desensitize them to the feelings of anxiety. (Meuret, Wolitzky-Taylor, Twohig, Craske,