CBT for Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)

Someone who suffers from social anxiety, or has a social phobia, feels anxious when talking to other people or being observed by other people. They fear that they will do something embarrassing or humiliating, or that others are thinking badly of them or judging them. This fear of negative evaluation by others may reflect underlying beliefs about being less good than others, different or not quite up to scratch. SAD may give rise to extremely unpleasant (but physically harmless) reactions such as blushing, sweating and trembling). It also produces distressing self-consciouness. It's onset is usually in early adolesence, sometimes it can begin earlier. Without treatment is runs a chronic unremitting couse. CBT is the only evidence based treatment for SAD. Anxiety Disorders CBT helps you overcome your fears which can often be quite crippling. So whatever your fear, fear of blushing, public speaking, fear of having a panic attack - get help now! The role of thoughts in CBT Let's look at the role of thoughts first. Many of us tend to think that the way we feel is simply a result of what happens to us. For example, someone criticises me and I feel upset. CBT says that this simple model misses out a critical step. If it was just the event (the criticism) that caused the feeling, then the same event would have to cause the same feeling in everyone. Everybody who was criticised would feel the same way about it. But we know that this is not true. Different people may have very different reactions to the same event. CBT says that what makes this crucial difference is the individual’s interpretation of the event. It is not the event itself which makes me feel upset, but rather what I take the event to mean. In other words, events are always filtered through my individual thoughts and beliefs about them. If I had different thoughts about the event I would end up feeling differently. CBT is based on the premise that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviours, and not external things, like people, situations, and events. The benefit of this fact is that we can change the way we think to 'feel better' and choose our actions even if the situation does not change. For more information visit: http://www.cbt.ie/