Curing Social Phobia via Hypnosis

Psychological problems are more prevalent in modern society than they are perceived to be. If not properly diagnosed and left untreated, these issues will lead to losses in affected individuals and consequently the companies that they work for. One of the most common but usually ignored psychological problems is Social Phobia. Anxiety in itself is a normal human function. It induces the fight or flight drive in humans which is essential to survival. However, if the stress put forward by anxiety is beyond what is normally accepted for a given scenario or if the consistent anxiety attacks has produced significant disruption in the daily functions of an individual, then it is imperative to be considered and treated as a psychological disorder. Among the alternative but increasingly being widely accepted cure for Social Anxiety is hypnosis. Use of Hypnosis to Simulate Exposure Therapy Hypnosis is a psychological tool that has long been used by psychology professionals to put patients in a trance. The major purposes of having an individual under a hypnotized state vary. For curing Social Phobia however, the primary goal is to provide a situation where in the patient will be subjected to a mental scenario that usually stresses him or her out. Instead of immediately exposing the individual to real life situations, the scenario exists only in the patient’s mind as supervised by a psychologist. This is very critical because if the patient is directly immersed into stressful environment, it will be complicated to manage and pacify the patient if he or she breaks out due to anxiety attack. Under the improvised exposure scenario produced by hypnosis, things are much simpler to handle and results lean towards the positive as all it takes to have the patient back is to put him or her in a normal state of mental consciousness once again. Evaluation and Long-term Treatment Similar to other techniques, choosing to cure Social Phobia by hypnosis is subject to longitudinal evaluation if one is to truly benefit from it. This is because a patient’s response to hypnosis and other therapies for that matter may vary over time. To get around this possible treatment roadblock, it is the psychologist’s responsibility to decide whether to stick with pure hypnosis therapy or to shift or mix various therapies to address Social Phobia problems. If after evaluation, it is proven that progress is positive with the use of hypnosis alone, then treatment may proceed as originally planned. The changes will then be integrated to the different scenarios that are recreated during treatment sessions and not to the actual method of treatment.