is there a cure for phobia ??

[marwan kamel]

i fear giving presentation infront of people
also i fear driving cars and always avoiding to use mine and i prefer to take the bus
does anyone here had phobia from something and he managed to overcome it ??????

 

[decadeOfSA]

I actually was afraid of talking in front of people in college until I had a class where I already had an A+ and could give a presentation or not and still get an A. I decided to just try it, because I knew I would have to take a Public Speaking class and give presentations in other classes.

Luckily I got to pick subjects out of categories to talk about and I ended up not having any problem at all. I got an A in Public Speaking and the only problem I had was going over the time limit.

You have to take baby steps and gradually expose yourself to things you are afraid of.

There is a type of therapy called systematic desenitization (Google it). Basically, what you do is build a hierarchy of situations you are afraid of and after doing some deep breathing and relaxation exercises, you imagine yourself in these situations, starting at the least anxiety provoking and working your way up.

You have to develop relaxation and imagination skills for this to work well though. The idea behind this is to associate relaxation with something you are fearful of.

You can also do this "in vivo", in real life by doing the same procedure, except you don't imagine the situations, you actually participate in them. It's important to start with something you can easily handle though.

You don't want to pair more fear with things you are fearful of. Instead, you want to pair a feeling of being relaxed.

Google "systematic desensitization".

 

[deadend]

No, there is no cure for social phobia in the same sense that you can cure an infection or disease. Medication and therapy is used to help manage it. Exposure may help reduce anxiety in specific situations, but exposure is often tied together with medication and other forms of "treatment" (I prefer the word management). I don't recommend exposure by itself - make sure you have a supporting cast and start gradually.

 

[BlackPuma]

Well, there is a solution, but not quite a cure.

It's a lot like battling a addiction. Therapy and drugs will only take you so far, you've also got to be fully dedicated to the solution for it to work. That means, that when you're ready for it, you're going to be uncomfortable before it gets better. Hiccups are to be expected, and are nothing to be ashamed about.

It's all about slowly confronting your fears, and changing your thought process that you have when in the presence of the things that make you anxious. I do highly recommend seeing a therapist or psychologist if you feel that you're not ready to take a bigger step yet.

There are solutions, but not a automatic cure.

 

[Agon]

I'm pretty sure a lot of people have gotten over different kinds of phobias by doing stuff like cognitive behavioral therapy or the ones mentioned above. There is a way out, even if it seems so impossible at this stage where one's fear has escalated beyond normal boundaries. But people have been able to do it, so there's no reason you and I can not. But it's never easy. Treating a phobia requires, on some level, exposure to the feared situations.

I, for one, also feared any kind of public speaking. During a speech I would get all clammy and blather about some nonsense for about 30 seconds before I would just give up and sit back down, leaving everyone in stunned silence. I utterly hated it.

In my high school, every English class required me to give a speech publicly at least 4 times a year. Most of them were impromptu speeches. I even had one "humorous" speech, where you had to make the audience laugh (oh, the trauma). And that was only in English class. Almost every other subject also required speaking in front at some point.

I exerted monumental effort just getting up in the morning of the activities and making my way to class. I was a hysterical mess. But I stuck through, finished the speeches, failed more than one of them, and I was surprised to find my fear lessening to some degree. The me who was scared s**tless of self-introductions and group presentations three years ago can now do them with relative ease. Speeches still scare the hell out of me, but I can manage. I think I'm on my way to recovery on this particular facet of my social phobia.

So yes. It's perfectly possible to get rid of a phobia. It's just unbelievably hard, and requires utmost dedication and iron will.

 

[Moses199]

There is dont believe that there isnt. Look up Charles Linden who has a great program for social anxiety and go to this website called SocialAnxiteySurvivor.com t

 

[decadeOfSA]

I think most phobias can be cured or greatly improved, but it's very hard and it takes a lot of work and time. I think SA is one of the harder phobia types to cure though. I tend to think biology plays a big role in phobias and in some people, it's very hard to cure or improve, but not impossible. I think I inherited my SA from my grandfather via my dad. I didn't realize it till recently, but he always had to have beer and cigarettes to self-medicate himself and generally avoided people as much as he could.

 

[mikebird]

I remember giving a presentation at university. That was harder than I thought.

It would be difficult depending on the audience it's aimed at.

What I've learned after all this time is: it's no good being vague. You have to know everything you're telling people about. You have to know the topic inside-out, and all the rest of it! It's possible to go into that with boosted confidence, but you'll feel knocked-back with just a few smirks or laughs from the audience, or it anyone is puzzled, or you hear some disagreement.

You have to plan ahead, like a game of chess, and think of what questions people might ask afterwards. I'm not saying I'll ever be a perfect presenter, but there is an amount to know and research into a subject that will come up trumps if you get it right. If you're able to outthink any of the audience - put yourself in their position - what would you want to ask if you was there.

SA has a profound effect on you being up there, but you cannot do anything about that. All you can do is refine your knowledge, keep coming up with new ideas as you plan it. Get it right.

 

[deadend]

Based on my observations on this forum I have learnt to assign a greater significance to the difference between SAD and AvPD/SAD.

With quite blurred borderlines, the simplest way that works for me in separating between the two is as follows: if you think you was born this way, i.e., shy and "different", then it is most likely AvPD. Although I am unsure of the role inferiority plays here I still would consider it a significantly distinctive sign too (I'm quite confused about this actually.) In addition, it also seems, since AvPD is being referred to as a personality disorder, that it is more ingrained and might not even need to be associated with typical panic attacks.

This may actually be quite significant.

In my experience with social phobia, I would tend to describe it as ingrained - I was a shy and relatively quiet kid. I avoided confrontation like the plague. It is not that this aspect of my personality has changed at all, or that a traumatic incident somehow induced SA. In other words, I do not understand social phobia as I experience it to be temporary. On the contrary, I find it to be chronic (and thus no cure) - it's been a part of who I am for as long as I can remember.

I can tell you that personality disorders (Axis II of DSM) are considered much more difficult to treat than your run-of-the-mill mood disorders (Axis I). AvPD is also considered more problematic/severe than SAD in terms of symptoms and effects on livelihood.

But the distinction isn't completely clear, at least not to most folks. I have a B.S. in Psychology, but I think it prudent to leave distinctions like these to professional psychologists and psychiatrists.

 

[Deus_Ex_Lemur]

It's a level of degrees really with DSM and AvPD is confusing wit SA because so similar but AvPD is a higher level maybe, still under the umbrella of SA.

Anyways I think like an addiction, there's no "cure" I mean... depends on your context of cure. It's living with and dealing with and controlling it imo... it won't disappear if you really have lived with it for so long - it's not a "disease" you can cure or take pills/medicine (I mean there's SSRI's and meds etc. yes) but that won't make u immune forever like when your body gets over a cold or flu to that strain. But you can be close enough to that. I've not had my coffee yet so probably am not making sense. But that's why it's so hard to "get rid of". But you can.

 

[funkyy]

exposure and cbt helps....

 

[Prestonator]

i fear giving presentation infront of people
also i fear driving cars and always avoiding to use mine and i prefer to take the bus
does anyone here had phobia from something and he managed to overcome it ??????

heyy! Yeah I have/had fears of eating in public places particularly in restaurants, and you know what? With the help of my counsellor, percerverence and sheer determination, I have recently started to make progress on overcoming it.

It is possible.....but do you know what the key to it is? SELF BELIEF!!!!!!! You can't overcome any fear so long as you lack the self belief that you have the tools and resources to cope with a situation, or deal with the thing you fear. This is what I have learned from my counselling. And it has helped me a great deal. Hope it helps you!