Social Phobia - Other people are quite dreadful The only possible society is oneself

A cure for shyness!' Newspaper headlines in the late 1990s were quickly taken up by the programme This Morning when Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan told the nation that this new drug would transform the lives of people who suffered from devastating shyness. In fact, this drug - Seroxat (Paroxetine), an antidepressant - was not new. ?or several years it had been prescribed for depression, panic attacks and agoraphobia, and a large number of PAX members were finding it very helpful towards over¬coming their problems. Recently, though, Seroxat had been hailed as the new treatment for social phobias and acute shyness.

This Mornings presenters announced that they would hand out supplies of the drug to volunteers, who would be asked to try it out Tor a few days' and then report back to the programme, hopefully to tell viewers that their shyness had disappeared and that they were able to enjoy a full social life once more.
Fortunately, some concerned doctors and some of us involved in the phobia organisations managed to stop this irresponsible experiment before it got under way. Can you imagine the hopes raised and then dashed to the ground? Of course, the drug has been of great help to thousands with anxiety problems, but it takes a good three weeks to act and it needs to be prescribed by a doctor or psychiatrist, preferably in conjunction with further therapy.

What a fuss to make about being shy, you might think. After all, thousands and thousands of people suffer from shyness and a lack of self-confidence. Surely it is a matter of facing up to life and tackling problems, something that would automatically improve with maturity.

Social phobia is a growing problem which affects equal numbers of men and women, unlike agoraphobia, which is a condition more often attributed to women, though there is a considerable overlap between social phobia and agoraphobia.



If You Want Immediate Anxiety Relief, Check Out Our New Natural Technique To Stop Panic Attacks and General Anxiety Fast!