You walk up on the stage to present your speech, you drop some of the notes that you were holding and you hear someone from the audience giggle. As you gather your notes, you feel dizzy, your breath becomes shallow, your hands begin to shake, you feel nauseated, you feel as if you want to excuse yourself and just want to disappear. Some may call it stage fright, but if the physical symptoms inhibit you from doing what you are supposed to do, chances are you might be experiencing a clinical disorder called social phobia.
Don’t worry though, you are not alone. Studies have shown that 5% of Americans have this disorder. While the event described above may simply be discounted as stage fright, the prevalence of physiological and sometimes psychosomatic symptoms that inhibit the person from accomplishing his or her intended goal physically, serves as evidence that it should not be marginalized simply as such.
The degree of the physical effect on the person who is suffering from such is one thing to take into consideration. The fact that shows that the person is physically inhibited from performing a task is enough reason to conclude that the disorder should be treated.
With its high rate among Americans, social phobia treatment has ranged from the personal, to the clinical and the psychological. Personal treatment could only come in the form of taking in substances that might alter behavior. Some of these substances are alcohol and drugs. Suffice to say, these substances may ultimately lead to more dangerous disorders such as alcoholism and addiction.
Clinical treatment may involve the prescription of anti-depressants with limited success.
Psychological treatment of social phobia could include group therapy, and modern behaviour modification techniques.
Social phobia is prevalent but most often than not, it is left untreated. Hence, this culminates in other disorders such as alcoholism and substance abuse.
Subjects who have this disorder tend to start taking in alcohol to mitigate their inability to function physically in social settings. It could be a reason why alcohol intake is socially acceptable if done in moderation in social occasions. There has been some attempts in describing subjects who suffer from social phobia as having deviant behavior. Whether this is meritorious or not is still subject to inquiry. However, there may be a point. Social phobia is characterized as behavior that a subject shows most specially in social settings. The subject avoids such social settings for fear of exhibiting physiological symptoms publicly.
This fear of a negative outlook then becomes overpowering and sometimes overrides other social norms. The overriding of norms then, when observed by the perceived audience, may be construed as deviant behaviour due to its sometimes, unexplainable nature.
The situation is repeated as the person is exposed again and again to the same perceived “hostile” crowd and the repetition then leads to the “regularization” of the socially unaccepted behavior. Depression may follow because of the “perceived” negative outlook of the crowd. This depression presents itself as a ripe opportunity for the purveyors of both legal and illegal substances that could alter social behaviour. One thing leads to another and soon, the subject could find himself in situations that are more dangerous than just having merely stage fright.
The treatment of this disorder should always start by going to the doctor. At the onset, the doctor will most likely prescribe medication designed to inhibit the physiological symptoms from occurring during triggering events. Should this clinical treatment prove to be unsuccessful, the doctor may then refer the subject to psychiatric evaluation. Upon evaluation of the patient, a combination of prescription drugs and social therapy then takes place. In all stages, it is highly inadvisable for patients to self medicate.
Self medication could lead to more dangerous medical and psychological conditions which would aggravate the situation rather than remedy it. The best way to start is to seek professional medical help that could better address the situation than yourself. Whether you like it or not, it is a problem that you could not solve on your own.
Social phobia in the end, may prove to be a disorder that could be cured with the increased exposure to an understanding society.
