Are you wondering how social anxiety medication stacks up against alternative forms of therapy, such as exposure therapy? In this article, you'll learn why some form of exposure work will be indispensable if you ever plan to overcome social anxiety symptoms. You'll learn why medication makes things worse in many situations.
Currently, there are only three basic forms of medication that have an supervene on social anxiety symptoms. One group would be those that influence your extensive level of anxiety within 45-minutes of taking the medication. This is a group of minor tranquilizers like Xanax and Ativan. These medications cause dependence if taken regularly. They do work in the short term by development it inherent for you to face your fears. Facing your fears is what we call "exposure." It gives your mind the occasion to construct new expectations about what will happen in situations that make you uncomfortable. If you have generalized social anxiety, you may be getting "exposed" to uncomfortable situations all day long, but as long as you are mentally trying to hide from the palpate (internally shrinking away from it) you are not doing exposure therapy.
Effexor Side Effects
If you decree that you are going to use a minor tranquilizer, don't take if for long. A indispensable part of people taking the minor tranquilizers for a duration longer than three months begin to show signs of depression because of the effects of the medication. Long term use of high doses followed by sudden cessation can lead to seizures, so be sure to consult your doctor before suddenly changing anything.
The second group of medication that affects social anxiety symptoms is the Ssri group, which are generally called antidepressants because they were first noted to be helpful with depression before we realizes they had a gradual supervene on anxiety in some cases. The most generally prescribed Ssri's are Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft, and others that all do basically the same thing in the brain. One other similar medication, Effexor, has also been popular ,favorite for treatment of social anxiety. It is also in the antidepressant class of drugs but it is a wee distinct because it affects norepinephrine as well as serotonin in the brain. These medications take four weeks of daily use before they show any change in peoples mood or anxiety reactions. Even then, the anxiety changes tend to be very small when compared to the supervene of properly conducted exposure work.
A third group of medication is the beta-blockers. These drugs are taken nearby 45 mintues before a big execution situation. They decrease the heart's response to adrenaline, so you are not sent into a panic by the sensation of a racing heart when you have to accomplish or speak in front of a big group of people (or small group of people). The qoute with this medication is that it only works for a small subset of people with social anxiety disorder. Also, you often cannot predict the situations in which you wish the medication was already in your bloodstream (such as being called on in a meeting or a class to speak).
The only way to have true recovery from social anxiety symptoms is by practicing the art of gradual exposure. It's a whole heck of a lot of work, but it pays off in terms of potential of life. The infer it is so first-rate to medication is that results are with you all the time with no side effects, no cost, and the pleasure of knowing that you used your brain to beat a easily big problem.
The gist of exposure therapy is that you shape out what kinds of anticipatory fears you are having in each situation that brings up your social anxiety symptoms. You then make specific plans to purposefully put yourself in situations that create a small amount of the social anxiety hurt while simultaneously changing the thoughts you have about what you expect to happen next. You replace thoughts of panic (that come from attempts to control the anxiety and feared outcomes) with thoughts of hopeful expectation that you will be able to use the exposure session as practice for studying how to ride the wave of anxiety and adrenaline until it leaves you alone. Gradually, you get so good at riding the wave of anxiety instead of fighting it that you find the social anxiety symptoms begin to fade away easily fast. studying to do exposure properly means doing some study on how it works. You can pay a psychologist to teach you how to do it gently over time, or you can do some independent study and make your own plan for facing down your fearful reactions and thoughts. It's not easy to go against your own fear, but it is worth it.
lowest price public Anxiety Medication Verses Exposure Therapy - Which One Works Best?
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