What is the treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder?
SAD has to be treated with Medicines and Psychotherapy. Social anxiety manifests due to faulty thought processing, dysfunctional beliefs and consequent anxious physical reactions. This can be either secondary to a traumatic real life experience or totally imagined.
Cognitive Behaviour therapy is very effective in treating this disorder along with anxolytic medication. In this therapy the person is enabled to identify the initial experience, which leads to the formation of thoughts process causing the anxiety.
Formation of Social Anxiety

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which is aimed basically towards overcoming the anxiety of socialisation and developing social skills, is an effective treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder. The CCLD approach, ‘Challenging’ old faulty beliefs and thoughts, ‘Controlling’ the physical manifestation of anxiety which leads to the person avoiding the situation, ‘Learning’ what to say after saying hello and ‘Doing’ interactive sessions with people initially in role plays with the therapist and then slowly moving towards real life situations is believed to be very helpful.
The entire therapy would last for about 15 sessions and the progress of the therapy directly depends on the efforts of the person to perform the physical and cognitive homework.
Ravi Samuel has done MPhil in Social Work specialising in Medicine and Psychiatry. He has undergone training
in Counselling and Cognitive Behaviour Psychotherapy at the National Hospital, UK. He has over 16 years of
experience in treating people with emotional,behavioural, psychological, psychiatric problems,marital problems and Interpersonal conflicts at the workplace. He has expertise in treating people with Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and Conversion Disorder (Hysteria). He also provides Cognitive Rehabilitation for patients with brain damage. He also has specialised software to provide
cognitive stimulation to students with poor memory and for those with concentration problems. He has been certified by the Rehabilitation Council of India. He has presented many papers in International Conferences and has written
many articles in many International Scientific Journals.
