Adolescent Social Anxiety effects

Social Anxiety in Adolescents

The adolescence is a difficult time of life for most people, because there are many important decisions that we have to make that affect the rest of our life, because we are shaping our personality, values, beliefs, we are sensible to what people think of us. We experience social anxiety in some degree when meeting girls, dating, going to parties and in school, however there are some people that develop severe social anxiety to the point that it takes control of their life.

Adolescence social anxiety is not uncommon, if fact millions of Americans suffer from this disorder. It usually appears in childhood due to genetics, but it can also appear at any other age due to some traumatic event or negative and embarrassing experiences.

Social anxiety in adolescents can become really frustrating because that is the time in our life when we start to make close friends, dating women, start to work, create relationships, have fun and many other experiences that are part of our daily life, but when a teenagers has social phobia it becomes a major block for developing the personality of him or her.

Effects of social anxiety in Teenagers

There are different consequences and effects of social anxiety in teenagers some of the most common are:

* The teenager wants to be lonely and avoids any social situation to be safe of any bad and embarrassing experiences.
* He most probably will have depression due to his loneliness and envy of his friends and people that are having fun while he cant even if he wants.
* Another major effect is that a huge percentage of adolescents with social anxiety get into drugs and alcoholism addiction to cope with they symptoms of anxiety, in parties, events, and any other place that they want to go out with their friends.
* Sometimes they even quit going to school because they cant handle it, a simple thing as presenting himself to the class can be a traumatic experience.
* The constant use of alcohol to cope with their symptoms produce depression.

Those are some of the most important negative effects of social phobia in teenagers. However it does not have to be this way, there are things that can be done to improve themselves and control or overcome their social phobia.

Most people think that this disorder does not have a cure, but the truth is that there are some very effective treatments that require some time and dedication but they do work.

Adolescent social anxiety treatments

The common treatments are medications and psychotherapy. There are several kinds of medications like MAOIs, SSRIs and Beta Blockers, those are anti depressants and anti anxiety medications.

Some examples are Paxil, zoloft, nardil, etc

There are also some alternative natural remedies, like herbal medicines and natural supplements. For example kava kava is an herbal remedy that has the same effects as medications to reduce anxiety, calm, relax and be more social.

Psychotherapy

According to some experts the most effective treatment for adolescents is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that helps change their negative beliefs and thoughts that trigger their fears in social situations. But following the therapy the patient will be able to change his fears of social situations and not perceive them as socially dangerous anymore.

It involves also exposure therapy which helps the teen to gradually expose himself to social situations that he can handle and be comfortable little by little.

There are other tips that teenagers can do to improve themselves and reduce their anxiety, for example they should:

* exercise regularly
* practice relaxation techniques
* practice visualization
* read motivation books
* give up food that contain caffeine
* Expose your self gradually to social situations
* Learn communications Skills

In fact i encourage you that if you think you lack of communications skills and you dont know how to express your self in front of others read a book or take a course on communication skills, it can be really powerful and have a great impact in your results and social confidence.

As a last point i want to say that adolescents need the support of their family even when they are doing things wrong, they are going through some difficult emotional problems in their social life that require support and help from their loved ones.