Exposure Therapy
Exposure therapy is essential if you are to overcome your social
anxiety, ie you must put yourself in the social situations you are
worried about. Although this sounds frightening, your therapist
will give you the tools to cope with confronting your fears (e.g.
rational thinking, slow breathing & isometric relaxation)
The exposure sessions must be
-
graded
-
repeated and regular
-
prolonged
Graded:
Your therapist will work with you to determine what would be an
appropriate first step; it should be difficult enough to provoke
some anxiety but easy enough for you to be fairly confident you
can do it. Once you can cope with Step 1 confidently, then you can
move onto a more difficult situation and gradually work up your
most feared social scenarios.
It is important not to confront a feared situation that is far
too difficult for you, as if you tackle something too stressful,
without sufficient preparation, you may become extremely anxious
or even have a panic attack. Such a negative experience would only
strengthen the association between fear and the social setting.
Repeated:
You need to confront your feared situations frequently and regularly
if you are going to overcome your anxiety. If your exposures are
too far apart your fear will have risen again by the next time you
do it.
Prolonged:
Generally, it is advised that you stay in the feared situation until
your anxiety starts to decrease. Socially anxious people often approach
or attempt a feared situation but then choose to escape from the
feared social or performance situation. When you avoid or leave
feared situations your fear of them increases because the decrease
in anxiety which follows escape gives you the idea that avoidance
was a helpful strategy. However, if you stayed in the feared situation
your anxiety would eventually decrease and the next time you confronted
the situation you would be less anxious.
Therefore, it is important to your recovery that you stay in the
social situation you are attempting. Try not to panic or flee if
the anxiety becomes severe. If your anxiety is high, you may feel
you temporarily need time out from your feared activity, e.g. if
you were attending a house party you might go to the bathroom or
sit outside in the garden, do some slow breathing, develop some
rational thoughts and wait for the fear to decrease for going back
into the party,
Remember exposure is necessary for your recovery.
Andrews, G., Crino,R., Hunt,C., Lampe, L., & Page, A. (1994).
The Treatment of Anxiety Disorders Cambrdige, England. Cambridge
University Press
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Social
Phobia 
