Question to those who overcame social anxiety.?

Question

Which medicine/treatment, etc worked for you? Please describe your experience. Thank you.

Answer 1

effexor

Answer 2

Well, I'm not entirely sure if the social anxiety you describe and what I experienced are one and the same thing, but I will share my own experience.

Approximately four years or so ago, I, for a number of reasons, ended up with a severe case of Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder. Which came first... chicken or the egg! The end result was that I did not want to go out, and being around people caused me such extreme anxiety that blew into total panic that I started to avoid any situation at all that might cause me to feel anxious. Of course, this led through to agoraphobia which then furthered the social thing - I really didn't want to meet anyone or do anything.

As to medications and other things that worked.

I'm not someone who is totally against all medications. I believe they have a time and a place and if used properly, in conjunction with other 'therapies,' can have a beneficial outcome. For me, I used Valium (gasp - I said the 'V' word) for the first while, and then as I got the panic and anxiety a little more under control, I moved to using Ativan. Now, I hardly use any medications at all - only when things are so bad that I cannot find that perfect little place to get things under control.

In conjunction with the medications, I did lots of different therapy including working with a psychiatrist, a counsellor, a panic group (that was really hard!) and reading. I highly recommend the "Anxiety & Phobia Workbook." This book saved me and became my constant bedside companion for several years.

With lots of support, lots of education, and (at least for me) a little bit of medication, I was able to regain control of my life.

Good luck to you.

Answer 3

I take Celexa also and I am sure that has helped but I think at some point you have to decide you are going to try to get to know people even if you feel uncomfortable. I have been eating in the same restaurant 3-4 times a week for 6 years, so now I feel like it is my home and I am comfortable talking to people there and have made a lot of friends "without trying". I mean, of course I tried, but when you feel comfortable you ask people questions and get to know them without really thinking about it. Take a class, join a club, hang out at the same place all the time. Don't put pressure on yourself. You will talk to others naturally when they have the same interests as you. Let us know what happens.

Answer 4

I used to have very bad social anxiety and was painfully shy. I have been on Paxil for 6 years for the social anxiety and depression and it has worked like a miracle. The depression sometimes comes back, but the social anxiety and shyness are things I have not had to deal with since on the Paxil. I no longer remember what it feels like to be shy! A real miracle for me. I don't mean to push any drug, but I'm only telling you of my person experience because you asked. It might not work as well for you, but for me, it was a God-sent. Good luck to you.

Answer 5

Lexi pro took the edge off for several "stay at home" moms I know that got caught in that "rut" and started to fear leaving home.

Create a social accountability- like church weekly, coffee with friends on Thursday nights. Book club- Saturday 2pm
I started back by taking my son to Mothers Day out, going to a midday movie and lunch. it was simple and it worked.

Answer 6

celexa worked for me, took about 6 weeks taking 1 pill a day for me to get used to it. at first it kind of makes u feel like u are high, but after a while u get used to it and all anxiety just seems like nothing.

Answer 7

I tried many things the doctor advised, but the best advice I ever got. was facing your fear. Yeah...it IS hard.

But take yourself out of your "comfort zone" and throw yourself into social situations as much as you can. I guarantee you, this will work, if you stick to it.

Answer 8

tried paxil, elival,and other before i found low dosage zanax is best for me .been 13 yrs now.

Answer 9

the "jump in and swim" method is what I got stuck with...sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

Answer 10

Mediation techniques can greatly help to cure depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, & other unwanted mental/emotional states, and generates within a person a very positive optimistic viewpoint of oneself, and of life. Buddhist Philosophy and Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation, mindfulness and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress. To most people Buddhism is an ancient Asian religion, although a very special one. It has no god, it has no central creed or dogma and its primary goal is the expansion of consciousness, or awareness. But to the 14th Dalai Lama, it's a highly refined tradition, perfected over the course of 2,500 years, of analyzing and investigating the inner world of the mind in order to transform mental states and promote happiness. "Whether you are a believer or not in the faith," the 14th Dalai Lama recently told a conference of Buddhists and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you can use its time-honored techniques to voluntarily control your emotional state. Yes, the 14th Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of over 580 million buddhists worldwide. Yes, he is also the head of the Tibetan government in exile. But in the spirit of Buddhism the Dalai Lama has an inquiring mind and wishes to expand human knowledge to improve lives. At its core, Buddhism is a system of inquiry into the nature of what is. He believes that psychology and neuroscience have gone as far as they can go in understanding the mind and brain by measuring external reality. Now that inner reality--the nature of consciousness--is the pressing subject du jour, the sciences need to borrow from the knowledge base that Buddhism has long cultivated. A comprehensive science of the mind requires a science of consciousness. Buddhism offers what MIT geneticist Eric Lander, Ph.D., called a "highly refined technology" of introspective practices that provide systematic access to subjective experience. Yet Buddhist psychology offers more than a method of investigation. Its core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners, whose material comforts have not wiped out rampant emotional distress. Over the past 25 years, starting with his own personal interest, the 14th Dalai Lama has set up discussions with Western scientists in an effort to further knowledge about the emotions. The recent meeting, held at MIT, was actually the eleventh in a series of annual conversations sponsored by the Colorado-based Mind & Life Institute. But it was the first one that was open to other participants. The Buddhist view of how the mind works is somewhat different from the traditional Western view. Western psychology holds to the belief that things like attention and emotion are fixed and immutable. Buddhism sees the components of the mind more as skills that can be trained. This view has increasing support from modern neuroscience, which is daily providing new evidence of the brain's capacity for change and growth! “Buddhism uses intelligence to control the emotions. Through meditative practices, such as mindfulness of breathing, loving-kindness meditation, and insight meditation, awareness can be trained and focused on the contents of the mind to observe ongoing experience. Such techniques are of a fast growing interest to Western psychiatrists, psychologists, and cognitive behavioral therapists, who increasingly see depression as a disorder of emotional mismanagement. In this view, attention is hijacked by negative events and then sets off a kind of chain reaction of negative feeling, thinking and behavior that has its own rapidity and inevitability. 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Evidence increasingly suggests that meditation techniques are highly effective at helping people recover from of depression and especially very useful in preventing recurrences. Medication may be needed during the depths of an acute episode to jump-start brain systems, but at best "antidepressants are a halfway house," says Dr. Alan Wallace PhD. When you have identified your major problem through meditation, whatever the problem is that is bothering you terribly, you should then sit there, relax, and call up this emotion in your meditation. Whether it is anger, jealousy, pride, envy, greed, loneliness, depression, anxiety, summon it here. Look at the essence of this emotion that makes you suffer so much. The mind is the root of all our experiences, for others and for us. If we perceive the world in an unclear way, confusion and suffering will surely arise! It is like someone with defective vision seeing the world as being upside down, or a fearful person finding everything frightening. We may be largely unaware of our ignorance and wrong views, yet present the mind it can be compared to a wild tiger, rampaging through our daily lives. Motivated by desire, hatred and bewilderment this untamed mind blindly pursues what it wants and lashes out at all that stands in its way, with little or no understanding of the way things really are. Mindfulness meditation helps us see things, people, situations, clearly – as they really are. The wildness we have to deal with is not simply that of anger and rage; it is much more fundamental than that. The tendency to be driven by ignorance, anger, hatred, and greed enslaves us, allowing confusion and negative emotions to predominate. Thus the mind becomes wild and uncontrollable and our freedom is effectively destroyed. Normally we are so blind that we are unaware of how wild our minds really are. When things go wrong we tend to blame other people and circumstances, rather than look inside ourselves for the causes of the suffering. But if we are ever to find true peace or happiness it is that wildness within which must be faced and dealt with. Only then can we learn to use our energy in a more positive and balanced way, so that we stop causing harm to ourselves and to others. The meditative techniques of Mindfulness of Breathing, Insight Meditation and Loving-kindness Meditation greatly aids us in curing depression, anxieties, anger, rage, hatred, greed, and creates Optimism within.
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Source: Psychologist with Master's Degree.