Solutions to overcome social phobia

Many solutions exist to help you overcome social phobia. Hypnosis, virtual reality therapies, and more traditional relaxation methods (sophrology, yoga, acupuncture, etc.) may be the keys to getting rid of your phobia.

Medication to treat social phobia

Medication is often prescribed if you suffer from social phobia. Be aware that in no case will treatment alone be sufficient to help you. Antidepressants are generally prescribed because their main function is to increase the concentration of neurotransmitters (such as serotonin and noradrenaline) in the brain and to improve neurotransmission. Taken alone, these drugs will not allow you to change the thought processes you have built up. They will only relieve your anxiety attacks and stage fright but not the root of the problem. For this reason, exposure therapies to feared situations seem to be the most effective treatment for phobia.

Overcoming social phobia with cognitive and behavioural therapies (CBT)

Among psychotherapeutic treatments, cognitive and behavioural therapies (CBT) are widely used. The exposure procedures it suggests now seem to be a fundamental component in helping social phobics to desensitise themselves from their fears. In a session, the therapist will gently immerse you in a real-life anxiety situation in a safe and gradual manner. This method goes at your pace. You will be able to express, discern and listen to what is going on. It is essential that you do not panic but that you analyse your emotions and behaviour. This immersion method is also used to treat other types of phobias. Over the course of the sessions (usually 3 to 6 months maximum), you will begin to see what you were trying to escape, to choose whether or not to take an action you were dreading while interacting with your therapist. The aim is to change the false beliefs constructed by the brain and to relearn to live with a free mind.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapies, an effective solution to social phobia

An alternative to this method of exposure now exists. If you are afraid of confronting a real anxiety-provoking situation even in the presence of your therapist, you may be more amenable to exposure via the use of a virtual reality headset. It is proving to be a tool to meet the needs and requirements of cognitive and behavioural therapies. Virtual reality software is now capable of recreating an environment that corresponds to the phobogenic situation that patients fear. This is a way of performing both in virtuo exposure and cognitive restructuring by teaching patients to resolve sensory conflicts. When patients are immersed in an immersive 3-dimensional world through the headset, they become actors in situations and have to confront their fears and anxieties in a gradual way. The psychotherapist is present to accompany the patients to deal with the situations while helping them to find new behavioural solutions. All parameters are controlled through the therapeutic software, which cannot leave room for the unexpected in real situations.

To treat social phobia, you will be confronted with various virtual situations of performance (reading text in front of a virtual audience), observation (being watched while doing an activity), affirmation (giving your point of view and expressing your needs), self-revelation (getting to know someone) or superficial interactions with others (exchanging with others in an informal way) and many other possibilities… We now know that even the use of unrealistic elements, provided they are carefully chosen, can trigger similar behaviours that people would have in the corresponding real situation.

It is essential to set objectives and to evaluate beforehand, with the psychotherapist, the triggering situations, the handicap generated and the symptoms felt in order to generate the most appropriate virtual environment for the therapy. If the patient has a virtual reality headset, it will also be possible for him to work at home on the sessions that were carried out in the office with the psychotherapist by choosing the characteristics of the environments to which he is exposed. However, care must be taken not to neglect the special relationship that is established between the therapist and the patient by making virtual reality a psychotherapy in itself.

Alternative medicine

Finally, if you are a fan of alternative medicine, a wide variety of practices can also be offered. There are no less than 400 of them! Some are described as physical (osteopathy, chiropractic, slow gymnastics, etc.), others as more psychological (EMDR, hypnosis, EFT) and still others combine psychological and physical components (yoga, meditation, sophrology, etc.). You will be able to choose the technique that suits you best. Whatever technique you choose, you will work on controlling your tensions and learn reflexes that promote relaxation.