Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder

Case Study 5: A 28-year-old woman is a rising junior executive in her investment company. Her increasing duties require her to make periodic formal presentations to the senior management of the company. However, she becomes intensely anxious at the thought of speaking in public. When she is forced to give a presentation she begins to feel anxious days in advance of the talk and the anxiety increases as the time for the talk approaches. She is concerned that her anxiety will become noticeable during the talk or that she will do something to embarrass herself.

The patient suffers from Social Phobia or Social Anxiety Disorder. This is characterized by the anxiety and stress of having to perform in certain social situations. People with this disorder also have intense fear of embarrasing themselves in front of others or strangers and not meeting their level of expectations. At times, this fear may be so intense that sufferers will begin to have anxiety days, weeks, or even months before the event is even scheduled to happen. Some patients will even go to great lengths just to avoid the situation all together and to avoid the embarassment they will feel. The patient will have a difficult time at her job because she will constantly have to make speeches in front of others that she does not know and the fear that others will know that she is nervous and the fear of being judged by others may keep her from being able to perform these speeches if she does not receive therapy. A good and successful method of therapy for social anxiety disorder is cognitive-behavioral therapy. With this therapy, relaxtion techniques and certain breathing exercises are taught so as to control the physical symptoms of the disorder. Also, patients are taught to slowly and gradually face their fears instead of avoiding them. The patient could also go through social skills training that will help her learn how to speak in front of others and feel confident while doing so. Through this technique of practicing until feeling comfortable, eventually the patient will overcome her anxiety and be able to perform well at her job.







http://www.mindsite.com/dsm_iv/social_phobia
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/social_anxiety_support_symptom_causes_treatment.htm