Can a person with social anxiety become worse if he's in public too often?
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at
8:23 pm
I was wondering if someone who has a job that involves being in public a lot, can it make that person worse if he has social anxiety? I heard exposure is good, but is too much of it a bad thing?
Filed under: Panic Attacks
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For some people with only a small degree of shyness, exposure can help. If you have severe social anxiety, you may find it makes it worse, and can lead to panic attacks and agoraphobia. If you have severe anxiety, would suggest seeing a doctor, as there are medications on the market specifically for social anxiety.
Yes it is very good if gradually exposed. It’s called Graduated Exposure Therapy. I read in "Goodbye to Shy", that getting a job that involves talkin to people will help.
Yes, it is true that people with social anxiety should have exposure, but they shouldn’t be thrown into the mix of things right away. That would make it worse, because you would be so overwhelmed on what to do, you would be afraid to do it again. What the suffering person needs to do is assimilate him or herself slowly into society, to get used to it. Like a cold lake. If you are gong into a clod lake to swim, you don’t want to dive right on in because your body would be shocked from the sudden cold. What the best thing to do with a cold lake is to go in slowly, so your body can get used to the cold easier. So, you would need to slowly get used to being in public, like you would the cold lake. One step at a time.