It’s only natural for people to feel nervous, self-conscious, or shy at various times in their lives. Certain moments can trigger nervousness and anxiety in all of us — speaking in public or meeting new people — can bring all of our insecurities rushing to the forefront. But there is a huge difference between these temporary instances of discomfort and social phobia.

With social phobia you experience intense fear and nervousness about being in certain social situations where you feel you’ll be scrutinized by others and found lacking. Like having to speak to a stranger or going to a party. Your fear of embarrassing yourself is so overwhelming, that you may go considerably out of your way to avoid these types of situations.

Emotional and Physical Symptoms of Social Phobia

For people suffering from social phobia, life can be hell. They never seem to have any peace, because they constantly feel self-conscious and nervous in social situations. They also experience intense worry well in advance of an upcoming social situation they dread. This worrying can start as far ahead as months before the situation takes place. It’s usually based on being terrified that other people will observe them and judge them negatively. And there’s the ever present anxiety that they’ll manage to somehow humiliate or embarrass themselves.

These emotional worries manifest themselves in physical symptoms such as blushing, a feeling that you can’t breathe, nausea, tremors, sweating, a racing heart and feeling dizzy or like they might faint.

Social Phobia Treatment

Challenge negative thoughts — identify the automatic negative thoughts which can overtake you and make up the basis of your fear of social situations. Analyze and question their truthfulness. By reevaluating your negative thoughts, you can teach yourself to replace them with a more positive view of the social situations that make you feel anxious.

Control your breathing — When you become nervous and agitated one of the things that occurs right off is that your breathing quickens, leading to feelings such as dizziness, suffocation, and increased heart rate. By learning to slow your breathing you can regain control over your physical symptoms of anxiety.

Confront your fears — Rather than avoiding social situations that you find disturbing, try gradually exposing yourself to these situations. Start with a minor situation that you know you can deal with and slowly, step by step, work your way up to more difficult situations.

Supportive relationships — Find something that you really enjoy doing and join a group that participates in this activity. This will provide a pleasant environment for you to mix with other people in a positive way.

Change your lifestyle — To ease your general feelings of anxiety and help yourself reduce stress there are certain things you can do: eliminate or cut back on your caffeine intake; drink moderately; stop smoking; and get plenty of sleep.

Therapy — Many professionals feel that the best way to treat social phobia is through cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Try to think positively and you’ll feel better and be able to handle stressful instances better.

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