Social Anxiety (And Other Things I Didn't Know About Myself)

Written by John R. Cook


Mid life for me, as most people, is a time of personal review, trying to fathomrepparttar twists and turns in life that have brought me to where I am today. Amongrepparttar 139202 questions I have asked myself is: What led me to specialize in treating social anxiety? Upon private reflection,repparttar 139203 most compelling reason is that I, like many of my clients, have suffered from that disorder. We are in good company. Just over 10% of North Americans can expect to suffer from social anxiety at some time in our lives.

Social phobia (social anxiety disorder) is characterized by excessive or unreasonable fear of being judged by others in social or performance situations such as public speaking, eating, or working. The anxious anticipation, avoidance, and distress we suffer in these feared situation(s) interferes significantly with our everyday activities, and can lead to a life of underachievement and loneliness.

The good news for people suffering from social anxiety is thatrepparttar 139204 condition is entirely treatable using Cognitive Behavioral therapy. To understand how this treatment works, it is important to understand two things about social phobia. The first is that it is a learned response. This means, like any bad habit, these learned responses can be replaced with other, more adaptive behaviours – ones that leave us feeling calm and confident rather than fearful and avoidant.

The second thing to be aware of, although social phobia can seem like an overwhelmingly huge problem, it can be broken into three parts. The three parts are physical reactions in our body, distortions in our thinking, and changes in our behavior associated with high anxiety. Once broken into parts, each of these three parts may be targeted with a set of treatment techniques that can be readily taught to practically anyone.

Freeing Ourselves From Toxic Ties With the Past – Part II

Written by John R. Cook


The first step in severing your toxic ties withrepparttar past is to become aware of some ofrepparttar 139184 possible negative historical influences in your life. You will recall from last month’s column that these influences can be of three types: state dependent recall that floods us with memories sharingrepparttar 139185 same emotional tone; regression that causes us to approach problemsrepparttar 139186 way we did as a child; and introjects that influence us to display attitudes and values borrowed from our caregivers. Pick up a copy of last month’s Platinum Magazine, or refer to this article online at http://pacificcoast.net/~psycserv/platinum.htm.

The next step is to find a clinical counsellor, social worker or psychologist who specializes in working with “family of origin” and other historical issues. The task of resolving your toxic ties involves integrating these historical influences with your adult skills and experiences. Traditionally, this has been with talking therapy designed to develop insight intorepparttar 139187 relationship between present-day coping difficulties with formative past experiences. While this time-honoured approach is still in common usage today, there are additional therapies available today, generally referred to as “power therapies”, because they acceleraterepparttar 139188 healing process.

One of these “power therapies” is called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing or EMDR. It was discovered in 1987 by Dr. Francine Shapiro who noticed by chance that moving one’s eyes back and forth reducedrepparttar 139189 intensity of negative, upsetting thoughts. The proofing ground for EMDR was Vietnam war combat veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it has also been shown to be effective with civilian PTSD such as that experienced by victims of sexual assault. The EMDR Association of Canada lists 12 members in Victoria on its Web site at http://www.emdrac.ca/publicinfo.

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