the critical fator in the recovery of Social Phobia 2

For some long-time social phobia suffers, only understanding that “all could never be eliminated” is not enough. Just like if we don’t go into the water, we will never learn how to swim even if we can understand and recite all the instruction materials on swimming.
First, we should not try to avoid any social situation like we used to do, we should force ourselves to rush into it, like a normal man, however nervous we are, however stupid we think we are, we should be brave, the result may not be as perfect as we expect, be brave and make the first step, but if you want to learn to swim, you have to jump into the water.
But for those extremely severe sufferers who are unable to do self-cure, it is quite necessary for them to participate in some group training class, among which the most famous one might be Carnegie Speech Training Class, for example, you can go to such group training class once to twice per week and persevere for 3 months to half a year, under the guidance of an experienced and professional therapist, you will change a lot. Such group therapist should give everyone sufficient time to make a presentation to all the other participants, the presentation should be customized according to every one’s personal condition, not limited to speech ( for example, singing, dancing, story-telling). Through such long-time training, those severe social phobia sufferers will be immersed in an artificial training environment with their low self-esteem personality changed little by little, confidence regained little by little, at last they will find that they have almost completely taken a new look. when they regain confidence, their once wrong cognitions will change themselves. Such change is made naturally.
What mentioned above can be categorized as some sort of CBT, it can be called Desensitization and Exposure Therapy, it can quickly remove the symptom, there are 2 principles we should stick to:
1, afraid of what, participate in what, if you are afraid of talking with opposite sex, try to communicate with the opposite sex; if you are afraid of making public speech, try your best to do it, only when you dive into the river, you will truly know how to swim.
2. More, more and more, more communication with people, more speech, more presentation, immerse yourself in the active environment.
However, all the actions above should be taken together with the essence of Buddhism, which touches the core of the problem. Without it, the fact shows the symptom can only be reduced for a short time, and it will come back again.

yeah, social phobia while probably real, is crap. Those of you that suffer from social phobia, don't you worry. It can be cured. In my own understand social phobia is really crippled self esteem, so fix your self esteem.

jacky1980 wrote:First, we should not try to avoid any social situation like we used to do, we should force ourselves to rush into it, like a normal man, however nervous we are, however stupid we think we are, we should be brave, the result may not be as perfect as we expect, be brave and make the first step, but if you want to learn to swim, you have to jump into the water.

About an hour ago I got an sms from a classmate wondering why I'm not at the ending party. Do you really think I should go? I almost get panic attacks by going to the dining hall every day..