From shyness to social phobia: what are they and how are they treated?

What can be done in psychotherapy to help people with social phobia or shyness?

Shyness becomes a problem that affects hundreds of thousands of people, often with negative consequences that go beyond simple discomfort. However, being shy does not mean having a psychological disorder.Rather, it is a personality trait that can present itself in varying degrees of intensity.

Something very different happens with social phobiawhich is a disorder and puts the person in serious difficulties when trying to maintain a good quality of life.

In this article we will see what these two psychological phenomena consist of and what is done in psychological therapy to help people who suffer from either of them.

Social phobia and shyness: differences

These two concepts are similar in several ways, but it is worth distinguishing between them.

Shyness, as we have already seen, is a personality trait linked to pessimistic expectations about how others will see us. a personality trait linked to pessimistic forecasts about how we will be viewed by others.. The idea of being a person with problems to be accepted or appreciated by others feeds personal insecurities, and that is why those who are shy avoid being the center of attention, and prefer not to expose themselves too much to situations where they can be valued by strangers.

Thus, although there are always exceptions, in general terms shy people tend not to have large groups of good friends, tend to go out less to socialize, and are more individual and introspective in their habits.

On the other hand, there is social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder. In this case, the anxiety generated by the possibility of experiencing ridicule or rejection by others is so intense that the person obsessively avoids this type of situation, to the best of his or her ability. In addition, when exposed to contexts in which he/she attracts a lot of attention from several people, he/she can barely conceal the anxiety, and his/her priority is to get out of this situation.and his priority is to get out of that place (even if by doing so he is drawing more attention, paradoxically).

In this case we are talking about a psychological disorder of the phobias group, and therefore it can generate symptoms so intense that they are of clinical relevance; that is to say, that they are sufficient reason to seek help from health professionals. The more time passes without having intervened on this tendency to develop moments of high anxiety, the more negative consequences accumulate.The following are some of the symptoms of social phobia: resignation from jobs with good conditions, practical impossibility of making friends or finding a partner, etc.

What is done in therapy to overcome these problems?

Both the problems derived from social phobia and very accentuated shyness can be addressed in psychotherapy, despite the fact that being shy is much less serious than having a phobia.

In the case of shyness, since it is more of a personality trait, therapy will not make it go away, therapy will not make it disappear, but it does help it to be expressed in much more adaptive ways, and even to not be noticed.It may even help it not to be noticed at key moments, such as performances in front of an audience. On the other hand, in the case of social phobia, the discomfort caused by exposure to strangers rarely disappears completely, but it can become so weakened that it does not limit well-being or prevent a normal life.

How is this achieved? There are different ways of promoting therapeutic change, and the overall objective of psychologists' intervention points to the need to promote other ways of interpreting reality and different ways of interacting with others. In this way, we intervene in physical actions as well as in mental processescognitive as well as emotional processes.

Some of the techniques used in therapy to help these people are the following, although they are always adapted to the particular case of each patient:

⦁ Live exposure to social situations. ⦁ Systematic desensitization. ⦁ Psychoeducation, to detach from unnecessary worries. ⦁ Cognitive restructuring to question limiting beliefs. ⦁ Exercises to improve expressive skills. ⦁ Exercises to improve nonverbal communication. ⦁ Creation of socialization guidelines to be done between sessions. ⦁ Collaborative work with family members (if necessary and possible).

Conclusion

Psychological professionals specialized in psychotherapy use resources such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, emotional release techniques and other scientifically created means to facilitate the patient's transition to this new way of relating to other people..

Eso sí, es necesario que quien acude a terapia llegue a comprometerse con este proceso de cambio a mejor, dado que los psicólogos no imponemos nada ni transformamos a los individuos si esto no ponen de su parte.

Referencias bibliográficas:

• Beesdo, K.; Bittner, A.; Pine, D. S.; Stein, M. B.; Höfler, M.; Lieb, R.; Wittchen, H. U. (2007). Incidence of Social Anxiety Disorder and the Consistent Risk for Secondary Depression in the First Three Decades of Life. Archives of General Psychiatry. 64 (8): pp. 903 - 912.
• Crozier, W.R. (2001). Understanding Shyness: psychological perspectives. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
• Stein, M.D.; Murray B.; Gorman, M.D.; Jack M. (2001). Unmasking social anxiety disorder. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience. 3. 26(3): 185 - 189.
• Xu, Y.; Schneier, F.; Heimberg, R. G.; Princisvalle, K.; Liebowitz, M. R.; Wang, S.; Blanco, C. (2012). "Gender differences in social anxiety disorder: Results from the national epidemiologic sample on alcohol and related conditions". Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 26 (1): pp. 12 - 19.