There are many social anxiety disorder treatment options available to you these days. I personally have been through every social anxiety treatment form that there is so I have some perspective on the things that you can do to try an control your anxiety. Before I discuss the several main options I want to tell you that I simply do not believe that any of these options can really eliminate your social anxiety. These things can help but, honestly, they are not terribly sophisticated and if you ever are able to eliminate your social anxiety disorder it will probably be because of breakthroughs that you have had and will probably have very little to do with the standard social anxiety disorder treatment options. However, that does not mean that social anxiety treatments do not work entirely. I believe that many of the people who work in social anxiety fields are truly well-intentioned people and some of their methods will help you with your social anxiety some. It’s just that some people think that if they pay a bunch of money or hire a bunch of experts that they will be able to cure their anxiety easily and permanently. I have to tell you that I think you are putting too much faith in these experts. Anyway, back to the matter at hand, let’s look at some social anxiety disorder treatment options.

1. Take medication. There are many anti-anxiety medications out there and I have tried just about all of them. I do believe that some anxiety medications can help, but only in very specific situations. For instance, take the benzos. If you have a severe panic or anxiety attack and you need immediate relief because you are hyper ventilating then a benzo like Xanax or Klonopin can be very effective. However, if you suffer from daily, chronic anxiety then a benzo is probably the worst thing for you. These classes of medication are terribly addicting and have an awful withdrawal syndrome when you are forced to come off of them, and quite simply they don’t work very well for chronic anxiety. If you have a chronic anxiety disorder and you take a Xanax everyday within a few months you will get no relief for your anxiety from the medication and you will be addicted to xanax and still having anxiety. Does that sound like fun? And while there are other anxiety medications not benzos they are not that effective in treating severe anxiety I have found. And believe me, I have tried them all. So, if you think that you need an anxiety medication try buspar or something like that. Don’t expect much and stay away from the benzos if you are smart.

2. Another social anxiety disorder treatment option is therapy. Now, I do believe that therapy can be helpful for anxiety, however not one on one therapy with a therapist. That simply doesn’t really work for a number reasons. While therapists tend to be caring people they are not really anxiety sufferers themselves usually. Because of this they don’t really know how to cure anxiety or treat anxiety from any first hand experience. They usually just know what they read in a textbook twenty years before. Really, I think one on one therapy for anxiety is a complete waste of time and money. If you want someone to talk to because you are stressed or need a mediator for a relationship or what have you then fine go see a therapist but one on one therapy will not help with anxiety. However, there is another social anxiety disorder treatment that I believe can help and it involves therapy. Find yourself a good therapy group. With group therapy you get to experience situations that will arouse your social anxiety and force you to confront it in a supportive environment. You will actually get better at dealing with social anxiety if you do group therapy. It will take a long time, probably years and you will need a good facilitator/group leader but if you find this then you will be able to actually see some results. However, realize that you will do most of the work on your own, the group therapist won’t actually help you much if at all. But the environment does help quite a bit and because of this I wholeheartedly recommend group therapy.

3. Another social anxiety disorder treatment option is to check into an inpatient treatment center. This is the most expensive method you can take and it is also the most intense. However, it is among the least effective options for treating social anxiety disorder mainly because you are working with a bunch of highly trained individuals that have never dealt with social anxiety, have only read about it in books and simply think all the text book things about curing anxiety. They are simply not that helpful. Also, be advised you spend a lot (and I mean a lot) of time working on DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) training which I don’t believe is very helpful unless you are a very low functioning human being. If you have trouble, like extreme trouble, with very basic tasks then you might find DBT useful, but if you have higher level difficulties you will simply be annoyed with this type of stuff. Though the experts (who read the textbooks) will tell you how great it is. So, as a social anxiety disorder treatment I don’t think inpatient treatment centers are as effective as they would need to be to justify spending that kind of time and money.

So, that’s my wrap up of the three main social anxiety disorder treatment options and, as always, feel free to leave comments below.