I was just wondering how effective the treatment of CBT is in dealing with Social Phobia because I suffer from it really badly and I am currently on a waiting list for it. If any of you are having CBT or have had it then what doe's it consist of or how doe's it help with SA/SP? And doe's it help inthe long term?
There's basically two techniques: cognitive restructuring (cognitive therapy) and in vivo desensitization (Exposure Therapy). Of the two, the latter is so essential to reducing its severity that there has been research supporting that it alone is enough!
Anyway, cognitive therapy identifies your automatic thoughts and disputes them if they are unrealistic and impractical. Almost all of the time, they are cognitive distortions, like fortune-telling, which is to overestimate the likelihood of a negative event happening. Eg. "I'm going to say something stupid for sure!" "If I blush in front of everyone, they will despise me!"
As for disputing them, this can involve finding evidence that support or contradict your beliefs, making a cost-benefit analysis (advantages and disadvantages of holding onto your beliefs), defining terms, etc.
As for exposure therapy, this will involve identifying both your complete avoidance and subtle avoidance (aka safety behaviors), which involves distraction (listening to your ipod or reading a book while in social situations), substance use (drinking alcohol to reduce the anxiety), over-protective behavior (wearing plain clothing to avoid attracting attention or over-preparing for a presentation), etc.
Once you identify your self-defeating behaviors, you start to use more constructive behaviors, mainly facing your social situations and giving up your subtle avoidance completely. For instance, you stop drinking alcohol and go to the party despite feeling very anxious. You also face the situations repeatedly.
Many times, you will face the social situations to challenge your automatic thoughts even further which is known as a Behavioral Experiment or experimental technique. For instance, the alcohol-drinker believed if she went to the party sober, she would say a lot of stupid things. But when she went to the party sober and it didn't happened, she learns it is unlikely to happen.
Anyway, that's only a little info right there. If you want to know more check out:
1) The Shyness and Social Anxiety Workbook
2) The Feeling Good Handbook