Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most commonly used form of treatment for social anxiety disorder and its effectiveness is based on evidence. According to the cognitive model put forward by Clark and Wells in this context; One of the most important factors underlying the insecurities of individuals with social phobia is some distorted, dysfunctional beliefs and thoughts, such as seeing themselves as boring, inadequate and worthless.
In addition, individuals with social phobia determine how to behave in a social environment. It has high standards and rules. For example, a person with social anxiety may say, "Everyone should like me, I should always look perfect, I should always speak flawlessly and impressively." He thinks like this. These high standards and harsh rules cause the person to make negative assumptions about any environment and perceive any social interaction as unsafe.
Undoubtedly, the negative, distorted thoughts that the person sets about himself and others, as well as The high standards and inflexible rules he sets about what he should do in a social environment leave the person with a high level of anxiety in social environments.
What is the way to help the individual cope with anxiety?
People with social phobia In order to reduce his anxiety and feel safe, the person begins to behave differently in situations that he thinks will pose a threat to himself or to avoid the environment completely, and these two forms of behavior become his defense mechanism. However, the behavior of a person to feel safe or the complete avoidance of social environments prevents the person from seeing that the event that he/she has turned into a disaster in his/her mind is not actually real.
However, the person never realizes the fact that he/she can manage his/her anxiety. Let's imagine a person with social phobia who completely avoids giving a presentation. Because he avoids it completely, he fails to see just how talented he actually is with public speaking, and more importantly, he fails to learn that audiences are much less critical than he thinks. It also ignores the fact how well he can actually cope with a mistake he makes during a presentation. That is, what the person creates in his mind. � He cannot gather enough information about the scenario and does not know what will actually happen, which, contrary to what is thought, increases his anxiety even more.
For this reason, the main purpose of cognitive behavioral therapy is; is to help the person gain a more realistic perspective on their dysfunctional beliefs and assumptions. One of the other and most important treatment goals is to enable the individual with social phobia to change their coping strategies with anxiety.
To teach the person that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are in a consistent relationship with each other, and as a result, to make an area more functional. to show that it will automatically affect other areas. As the person's distorted thoughts decrease, his/her avoidance of social environments decreases. As a person becomes more active in social environments, he/she gets the chance to collect information in a healthier way about the thoughts he/she creates in his/her mind.
If your fear and anxiety towards social environments is at an unmanageable level and the functionality of important areas in your life begins to deteriorate, you need to take control again. I recommend that you do not refrain from getting professional support on your behalf.
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