I think this is a subject that anyone with Social Anxiety Disorder fantasizes about at least once per day, I know I do. It’s imagining the feeling of being completely un-self-conscious, the feeling of being confident enough to do everyday things without having massive worries about everything constantly, the feeling of generally being free and not being limited at all by this illness.
I’ve started looking at books on the Internet which claim to have the answers to curing Social Anxiety Disorder, and I’ve read many different articles on the condition on various websites. I think that there are a few ways of curing SAD, the main and most popular methods being CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and the second being the good old “just get on with it and live your life” type approach.
Now I’m by no means any kind of expert on Social Anxiety Disorder, as you would have no-doubt already guessed, or on the practices of CBT, but I think this method will involve seeing a specialist (Councillor or Psychiatrist) which would probably be provided by the NHS unless you have private medical healthcare. I think that CBT involves going back and trying to remove many of your negative thought processes which could have brought on the SAD, instead changing them with more positive and rational thoughts. For example, I have SAD and I sometimes find it hard making a phone call. I think as part of CBT I would be told something along the lines of, what’s the worst that could happen? I’m not going to die or anything, so what’s the problem? Anyway I think that’s kind of how CBT would go – training your mind and making you change the way you generally think about things, stopping the negative thoughts from even occurring.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy does seem to be the best option when it comes to trying to cure Social Anxiety Disorder, but I feel that at this moment in time I’m not quite ready to give it a go. One of the things with SAD is that it restricts you from even asking for help – something as simple as going to the Doctors is a painful process (having to phone them up to book an appointment, getting there, booking in at reception, waiting to go in, seeing the doctor, etc). I think that this process would put many SAD people off of going to the doctors for help, although I do believe that you can sometimes call the doctor out to your home if you feel that you aren’t able to get to them yourself. Although I think if I pushed myself I could go to the doctors to talk about my SAD, I’d be a bit worried if I was told I had to go to another hospital/doctors to get the CBT done. I wouldn’t like the idea of having to go somewhere new, as that seems quite daunting to me.
The other option for curing Social Anxiety Disorder which I mentioned earlier is the method which I think a lot of people eventually go out and take – the “f*** it you only live once” approach where you just put everything on the line and hope that you can cope with general life. If I’m honest I can see this being the approach that I’ll end up taking one day. I’ll just be fed up of living the way that I am, and will force myself to go out and do something crazy/awkward. Then hopefully I’ll survive and what to do it again, or do something even crazier, and hopefully eventually I will be happy doing most things, without feeling the horrible Social Anxiety :) That's the plan anyway! The crazy thing that I can see myself doing is going away travelling for a few months or more, and I’m really hoping that one day I’ll just get up and do it, leave my comfort zone and try living my life. But until then I’ll keep posting! ;)
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