Social Phobia
On this page:
- What is Social Phobia?
- How common is Social Phobia?
- Can Social Phobia be treated?
- Getting help
- Treatment research programme
- Practical advice
- Support groups
- Information for health care professionals
What is Social Phobia?
Social Phobia is an anxiety disorder in which people fear social or performance situations. A social situation is any situation that involves interacting with other people. A performance situation is a situation in which a person is concerned that what they are doing in public is being scrutinised or judged by others.
People who suffer from social phobia experience a distressing amount of anxiety whenever they are in a feared social or performance situation. They are concerned that they will do or say something that will be humiliating or embarrassing. They often fear that other people will see them blush, sweat, tremble or otherwise look anxious.
The situations that are feared by people with social phobia vary from person to person. Some people fear only a few situations, others fear most situations. Common examples of feared situations are:
- Participating in meetings
- Talking to strangers or people in authority
- Eating or drinking in public
- Talking in front of a group of people
- Writing or working while being observed
- Dating situations
- Starting or maintaining a conversation
- Being the centre of attention
Not surprisingly, people with social phobia try to avoid their feared situations whenever possible. However, because it is extremely difficult to avoid contact with other people, the situations are often endured with distress.
Although it is normal for people to sometimes feel anxious in social situations, social phobia is diagnosed when the social anxiety significantly interferes in a person's life and stops them from doing things that they would otherwise like to do. Two kinds of social phobia have been identified.
- Specific social phobia is a fear of a few situations. For example, public speaking or writing in public.
- Generalised social phobia is a fear of a wider range of social and performance situations.
How common is Social Phobia?
Between 7 and 13 people in 100 experience social anxiety that interferes with their life. It affects women and men from all cultural backgrounds. It often starts early in life (early to mid teenage years) but can start suddenly in later life.
Can Social Phobia be treated?
Yes, research indicates that several psychological treatments are effective. Staff at the Centre have been involved in developing one such treatment, which is called Cognitive Therapy. It focuses on teaching people new ways of thinking and behaving in social situations and is practical and straightforward. Randomised controlled trials have shown that cognitive therapy is more effective than treatment with medication or some other established psychological treatments. Progress in the therapy requires a commitment to attend regular (once a week) sessions with an experienced therapist.
Getting help
What should I do next to get help?
Consult your GP:
A first step is to see your GP. Tell them about the symptoms you have been experiencing in social situations and that you think you have social phobia.
Referral:
Your GP may refer you to a psychological therapist or suggest medication. If you live in the London boroughs of Southwark, Lewisham or Lambeth you can ask your GP to refer you to our clinic for assessment and treatment. If you live outside these boroughs but could travel each week to the clinic, you can ask your GP to refer you to our treatment research programme.
When we receive your referral a specialist in our team will review it and decide if an assessment appointment is appropriate. We will write to notify you and the referrer and will invite you to contact the Centre so that we can offer you a choice of appointment dates.
Assessment:
Once an appointment has been arranged, you will be sent some questionnaires covering different aspects of social phobia to fill in and bring to your assessment. You will also receive a map and directions to the Centre.
Treatment:
If it is thought that treatment at the Centre will be helpful for you, a series of therapy appointments will be arranged. Depending on the availability of treatment slots, there may be some delay before we are able to start therapy but it should not exceed 13 weeks.
Treatment research programme
Our team at the Institute of Psychiatry in South London is one of the world leaders in the psychological treatment of social anxiety. From time to time we offer people suffering from social anxiety and living in London, a course of cognitive therapy as part of a research study. If you would like to be considered for our next study, please complete the social anxiety questionnaire. All your answers will be treated as strictly confidential. Following receipt of the questionnaire, we will get back to you and let you know whether it is likely that you would be able to take part in our study.
Practical advice
As social phobia often starts early in life, some people feel it is unlikely that it can be treated. This is wrong. Several effective treatments exist and how long you have had the problem does not affect how likely it is that the treatments will help.
Support groups
Some of the large national charities advertise support groups that are open to people who suffer from social phobia. For example, Social Anxiety-UK (SA-UK) is one of the organisations that assist people with social phobia. Their website www.social-anxiety.org.uk takes you to a home page, and on the left hand side of the page, you will find push buttons that take you to information about finding local groups and meetings. SA-UK members hold regular, informal meetings around the country, to which anyone is welcome. The groups are a mixture of support groups aimed at people with social phobia, and social groups which enable people with social phobia to meet others with similar experiences.
You might find some helpful information on the following websites:
www.socialanxietyinstitute.org
Information for health care professionals
Treatment research programme
Our team at the Institute of Psychiatry in South London is one of the world leaders in the psychological treatment of social anxiety. An ongoing research programme aims to further enhance understanding and treatment of the problem. If your service user suffers from social anxiety, could conveniently travel to our Centre and would like to help with our research, we may be able to offer them a course of cognitive therapy. If this would be of interest, you could tell your service user about this website and ask them to fill in our electronic questionnaire. Their reply will be sent to us by e-mail and all their answers will be strictly confidential. We will then get back to your service user and let them know whether they can take part in our study.
If you would like further information about the study for your patient(s) please click details of the study to get the research information sheet.
Please ask your patient to complete the social anxiety questionnaire. All answers will be treated as strictly confidential. Following receipt of the questionnaire, we will get back to your patient and let them know whether it is likely that they would be able to take part in our study.