Comparison of Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive Therapy to Social Phobia

2215 Words9 Pages
Comparison of behavioral therapy and cognitive therapy to social phobia Background social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder, is the most common anxiety disorder(stein & Stein, 2008). It is one of the most common psychiatric disorders(Feanklin, 2006) and the third largest mental health care problem in the world today.(Social anxiety association, 2013) According to latest government epidemiological data, social anxiety affects over 7% of the population at any given time. The lifetime prevalence rate is up to 13%.(Social anxiety association, 2013) Definition Social anxiety can define briefly as: the fear of social situations that involve interaction with other people. (Social anxiety association, 2013) The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) describe it in detail: A. A persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be embarrassing and humiliating. Butler(1999) note that people with social phobia may not actually do anything humiliating or embarrassing.Their symptoms do not even have to show. They only have to think that there is a possibility of this happening for them to feel fearful and anxious. B. Exposure to the feared situation almost invariably provokes anxiety, which may take the form of a situationally bound or situationally pre-disposed Panic Attack. The precise things that someone with social phobia fears may be quite idiosyncratic: talking on the telephone, prolonging a conversation, entering a room full of people, eating or writing when other people can see what they are doing, or speaking up in front of a group of others; but having to do these things is nearly always difficult for
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