By Sami Shields of ContemporaryVA
Do you have a fear of crowds? Or being around a lot of people? If you are a highly sensitive person you are more likely to be affected by the energy of other people especially when there are a lot of people in one place.
The agoraphobic syndrome is a complex phobic disorder that usually occurs in adults. The major features are a variable combination of characteristic fears and the avoidance of public places, such as streets, stores, public transportation, crowds, and tunnels.
Agoraphobia is derived from the Greek element agora which means an “assembly” or “marked place”; not “open spaces”, as is commonly stated by some people. The term agoraphobia refers to the fears of streets and crowded places, not to “open spaces”.
The central feature of this phobia is a fear of being in embarrassing situations or in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or in which help may not be available in case of experiencing a panic attack.
Typically, in the late teens or early twenties, the subject develops fears of leaving the security of the home following a series of unexpected panic attacks.
Next appears the anticipatory dread that panic and a feeling of helplessness or humiliation (catagelophobia) will return in certain settings or situations; such as, crowds, stores, elevators, buses, subways, airplanes, theaters, tunnels; that is, any place from which there is no easy escape or access to help.
people with social anxiety disorder know that their anxiety is irrational and does not make “head” (rational) sense. The fear is not based on fact. Nevertheless, “knowing” something is never the same thing as “believing” and “feeling” something. Thus, in people with social anxiety, thoughts and feelings of anxiety persist and show no signs of going away. We say that anxiety is chronic in this situation.
The Right Kind of Treatment is Successful
The good news is that cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety has been markedly successful. People who have had this anxiety problem for long periods of time have blossomed while in therapy. After therapy, people with this problem report a changed life — one that is no longer totally controlled by fear and anxiety.
Social anxiety, as well as the other anxiety problems, can be successfully treated. It always bothers me when I read that a person with social anxiety is just “going to learn to live with it,” or “learn to manage it.”
There is no rational reason to keep living with social anxiety. There is no rational reason to believe you must “manage” it the rest of your life.
You don’t need to live with social anxiety disorder for the rest of your life! The decision to get better belongs to you. So Contact Never Give Up, LLC Today!!!!
What are you currently struggling with? Let us know in the comments below or send a message here. 