Social Phobia or Social Anxiety
Social phobia or Social anxiety is by far the most common symptom I treat here at the Gloucestershire Hypnotherapy Clinic. Simply, social phobia is a fear of being judged or ‘put on the spot’.
Generally, a social phobic will worry continuously about how others see them and what others think about them. They have a fear of being judged, humiliated or embarrassed when exposed to scrutiny by others. Even though they know it’s not true, people with social phobia feel that everyone is watching, staring and judging them in some way.
Social phobia or social anxiety can affect every area of a person’s life, sometimes to the point of not wanting to leave the house. In most cases, it affects social situations such as being in restaurants and pubs, not wanting to eat in front of others, having to have a drink, or a few drinks, to ‘loosen up’ and relax before they can enjoy the evening. Also work situations such as meetings, presentations, or perhaps just the added pressure to get things right.
Usually the social phobic is very good at hiding their internal anxiety and lack of confidence from others, and most people such as friends and family may well view them as being quite confident.
As with all phobias or internal anxieties, stress from work, family, money, and relationships will have a significant effect on the 'strength' of the anxiety within that person. The more 'stressed' the person is in their life, the worse or stronger their symptoms become.
Some of the symptoms of social phobia are:
- Feeling panicky at the thought of becoming the centre of attention when you are with other people
- Feeling as though everybody is looking at you and noticing what you are doing
- Not feeling good enough or fear of rejection from others
- Low self-esteem and lack of confidence
- Feeling ‘shy’ around other people
- Not wanting to go into shops or restaurants
- Agoraphobia – not wanting to go out of the house, in case you may have to interact with others and run the risk of embarrassing yourself or being humiliated
- Being afraid to perform in front of others in case you make a fool of yourself, for example in a job interview, meeting or public speaking
- Having a tremendous fear of ‘being put on the spot’
- Stuttering or stammering
- Have a pre-occupation with how you look
- Fear of failure
- Blushing, or a fear of blushing
- Being afraid of those in authority
- Fearful of writing in front of others
- Working too hard to please others
- Shy bladder (men) – not being able to pee when on the spot
- Performance anxiety when having sex
- Feeling anxious when making phone calls
- Fear of being humiliated
- Feeling fearful when eating in front of people
Social phobia responds very well to Pure Hypno-analysis which is a very effective technique that resolves the cause of the problem and not just the symptoms.
Like any phobia, social phobia is caused by strong emotions being bottled up usually from childhood. These emotions are completely locked away in the subconscious mind so the social phobic has no conscious awareness of them.
Pure Hypno-analysis requires a strong bond of trust and rapport created between the therapist and the client. Over a period of between 8-12 sessions, we slowly link thoughts and experiences back through time using a process called ‘Free Association’ until we reach the bottled up emotions causing the phobia. When these are released, the phobia is gone forever.
If you have any further questions about social phobia, I would be more than happy to have a chat with you about it. Contact Me.
