Social Phobia is also known as social anxiety disorder. It is a psychological disorder in which the individual shows an extreme fear of social and performing situations. He/she constantly fears exposure to scrutiny and negative judgment of others. Social phobia can become an extremely debilitating condition if left untreated as it tends to disrupt the normal functioning of the affected individual in day to day activities.

An individual might be diagnosed with specific social phobia or generalized social phobia. The former involves the fear of one or more specific social situations in which the individual fears the exposure to criticism and negative evaluation of others. This includes the fear of public speaking, using a public bathroom, eating at a social event or restaurant and reading or writing in public. Generalized social phobia involved the fear of most social situations and public performance situations that require any form of social interaction. Most of the individuals diagnosed with the latter, also share a diagnosis with avoidant personality disorder.

Social Phobia treatment:

There are various effective remedies for the treatment of social phobias ranging from medications to psychotherapy.

Medications: Unlike specific phobias, there are various effective drugs that are used in the treatment of this disorder and have received tremendous amount of attention in the past decade. Beta-blockers or medications that are used in the treatment of high blood pressure such as Inderal have proved effective in the treatment of performance anxiety. These drugs work by controlling the peripheral autonomic arousal symptoms such as trembling hands or voice.

For full blown social phobia other categories of medications such as antidepressants including monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and antianxiety or anxiolytic drugs are prescribed. One of the adverse affects of administering these medications for the treatment of social phobias is that the relapse rates upon discontinuation of the drug tend to be quite high.

Behavior Therapy for treatment of social phobia:

There are various effective forms of behavior therapy that are recommended for the treatment of this disorder of which cognitive behavior therapy is the most widely used method. Behavior treatments generally comprise of prolonged exposure to social situations that arouse fear, often in a regulated manner. Cognitive techniques have been combined with behavioral techniques to treat social phobia and show a significant reduction in the symptoms of the patents suffering from the disorder.