Treating
Social Anxiety, Sociophobia, Social Phobia using Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy
in Belfast, Portadown and Newry, Northern Ireland
Stephen Chan, professional hypnotherapist can help you with
social phobia / social anxiety using hypnosis and hypnotherapy in Belfast
and Portadown, also within easy reach of Newry, Lisburn, Antrim, Lurgan,
Armagh and Dundalk.
SOCIAL
PHOBIA / SOCIAL ANXIETY: most commonly known as social anxiety,
social anxiety disorder is the all-encompassing fear of feeling embarrassed,
or humiliating which results in you avoiding any situation where you
are likely to feel 'put on the spot', embarrassed, humiliated or judged,
such as dinner parties, public speaking, interviews, appearing in court,
singing.... in fact any public type situations.
It is the most commonly phobia that I have successfully treated over
the past decade in my Belfast and Portadown hypnotherapy clinics...so
you are definitely not alone.
SOCIAL PHOBIA / SOCIAL ANXIETY: also has other connected
symptoms, such as sensitivity to criticism, excessive blushing, excessive
sweating, negative self image, fear of rejection, difficulty in being
assertive and feelings of inferiority. In other words, if you have a
social phobia you will constantly be worried about how others 'see'
you and what others may be thinking about you, so it’s not surprising
that a lot of time has been spent creating the image you want others
to see. Usually social phobics are quite adept at concealing their anxiety
from others, although there is quite often a difficulty in maintaining
eye contact.
In a clinical setting (in the U.S.A.) somewhere between 3 and 13% of
people had social phobia. Social phobia generally begins to be noticeable
in the mid -teens (although it often follows on from being thought of
as just being 'shy') or it can be triggered off by a particularly embarrassing
event. As with all phobias, stress (or the lack of it) will have a significant
effect on the 'strength' of the anxiety created. In the D.S.M.4 (the
Mental Health 'Bible') the main criteria for social phobia is listed
as; "A marked and persistent fear of one or more social or performance
situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to
possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he/she will act
in a way that will be humiliating or embarrassing".
Some symptoms that may appear alongside (or be caused by) social phobia
or social anxieties are.....
-
A fear of public speaking
- A
fear of talking on the telephone
- A
fear of writing in front of someone, even signing a cheque!
- Blushing
or a fear of blushing
- Stuttering
or stammering
- A
lack of confidence
- Working
too hard (to please others)
- Setting
unachievable high standards (and feeling really bad when they are
not met)
- A
preoccupation with how you look or perfecting an image you want others
to see…this is about trying to 'blend in' and NOT vanity.
- Certain
twitches or 'tics'
- Shy
bladder (men) not being able to pee, when on the spot
- Certain
sexual inhibitions…due to 'performance anxiety'
- Repeated
failure of driving test…due to 'performance anxiety'
- A
persistent fear of failure, or 'not making the grade'
Basically, it’s any situation in life where you might feel embarrassed,
on the spot, judged, silly, out of control etc.
How did I develop my social anxiety / social phobia?
When growing up we can all have experiences that cause intense emotional
reactions and, when this happens, our minds have the ability to literally
'bottle up' or ‘hide’ the experiences and connected emotions
which is a very effective in-built coping mechanism.
Another reason as to why you felt that you needed to bottle up these
things is that you were brought up to think that, if you were ‘good’
you would be loved, but if you were ‘bad’ you wouldn’t
be. So, this meant that anything that you did or experienced which you
felt ‘bad’ about you kept to yourself, because if you feel
bad about something you always presume others will feel likewise…so
anything you ever felt bad about (rightly or wrongly) is ‘bottled
up’…for fear of being JUDGED! So, just like everyone else,
you felt that’s its ‘good’ to bottle up your feelings
and believe such rubbish as ‘out of sight out of mind’ and
‘time is a healer'.
Although your mind 'safely' bottled up these experiences and emotions,
unfortunately your mind now creates an ‘alarm’ in the form
of a phobia / aversion in an attempt to keep you away from any similar
or anything symbolically or even vaguely similar to the original experiences
again…
'Any situations where you may feel judged!’
Most other therapies including traditional hypnotherapy either try to
treat or 'get around' the symptoms of social anxiety, or even try to
teach you strategies on how to 'live with it'; others believe that if
you can understand/intellectualise the problem this will bring relief.
Unfortunately, these therapies cannot gain access to the 'bottled up'
emotions and experiences of the past that are really at the root of
your problem...BUT... Pure Hypnoanalysis can reach and safely unlock
these emotions and experiences and the phobia will disappear because
the energy (emotions) driving it will no longer be there; the emotions
will finally be resolved, leaving you feeling in total control of your
life again.
Please
contact me at Ulster Hypnotherapy to arrange a free consultation on
Freephone 0800 970
1189. I offer a free confidential consultation
at both my Belfast and Portadown clinics. There will be no need to speak
to anyone other than myself and I promise that your problems will be
discussed with the greatest of sensitivity and strictest confidence.
Please note because of the volume of clientele there is a strong possibility
you will be connected to my personal answer phone; if this is the case
just leave your name and number and when I return the call I will not
give my name and I will ask for and talk only to you.
YOUR
CONFIDENTIALITY IS GUARANTEED.
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