by Wahidabi Sulaiman

Created on: August 03, 2009   Last Updated: August 04, 2009

Social anxiety can be mild such that you can pass it off as shyness or severe which could be paralyzing. Shyness can be overcome as you grow older and get involved in activities and get to know more people. However, people who suffer from severe social anxiety need a lot of help getting out of that anxiety. This severe anxiety can be identified with the following symptoms.

Extreme shyness when it comes to a social setting that they would do anything to avoid such situations. From reading aloud to voicing their opinions, they will be reserved and face extreme shyness. They would rather be left alone than make an effort to mingle with anyone outside their comfort zone. They would jitter when talking to someone unfamiliar or in a group discussion. Their hands would feel cold and their lips dry. You can see that their face would either turn red with embarrassment or pale with fear. Such severe social anxiety can affect a lot of things including the studies and personal relationships of the person suffering from it.

In order to grow out of shyness, you need to keep getting into social settings and eventually they will become more comfortable and will not feel as if socializing is a chore. However, severe social anxiety would need the help of several factors. This could be in the form of pharmacotherapy in terms of medications and psychotherapy or hypnotherapy.

Anti-depressants helps to reduce the level of anxiety in a person. This would help to reduce the increased heartbeats and pressure, calming and controlling the anxiety in the person concerned. As such, they would feel more at ease and better about socializing or giving a presentation. However, long term medication could come with side effects. As such, the person concerned needs to constantly try and change the mindset. Together with medication, change in mindset would help to increase the percentage with which the anxiety will be reduced.

A change in mindset can be accompanied with the visit and consultation with a hypnotherapist. Consultation with a hypnotherapist will help to identify the anxiety triggers. This will in turn help the hypnotherapist to frame your mind accordingly so that you are more accustomed and receptive of overcoming shyness and anxiety when in contact with social settings.

The earlier the symptoms of social anxiety is identified and its severity analyzed, the better it is for the person concerned. It is no fun sitting in an enclosed room when the whole world is waiting for you!

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