Social phobia: causes, symptoms, treatment with hypnotherapy, doctor's advice

Tomorrow nothing will change

A traumatic event once experienced, in fact, continues to be experienced and felt every second. We usually do not notice the lava boiling inside us, because the current layer of consciousness, like bark, blocks the previous ones.

Just as a tree does not notice its annual rings, so you do not notice the "rings" of your life, into which the negative emotions you have experienced turn after they are covered by more and more new experiences. You "swell" like a baobab, whose trunk becomes wider with each ring. You can no longer be embraced, and this is your “wealth”, because such sensory experience makes the world around you less and less cozy.

“I blush, I turn pale…” or “The girls fell in love with someone else…”

Social fear is a mutant emotion living inside you, which differs from normal ones in that it regularly breaks through the cortex of your consciousness, coming out like an uncontrollable fire. You need to get to the life ring in which she settled.

No, you don’t need to put on armor and lower the visor to cut off the head of this monster in a heated battle - you just need to live this piece of life again, because the first time you did it unsuccessfully.

It just so happened that when you became a smart and strong person, you did not have the chance to go through the same life situation again, so the freak emotion remained the only answer to a certain set of circumstances.

• That is why for you the closing doors of the elevator or the threshold of intimacy become a signal for panic, which was once experienced by a teenager, seized by fear or a murderous feeling of shame.
• You are an adult, but your reaction is childish.

Dossier of a sociophobe: character bad, single

In general, being a social phobe does not mean not being able to adapt. Although the fear of condemnation, naturally, prevents you from making acquaintances, sometimes it creates a positive imbalance in development. An unsociable teenager, for example, can become a highly paid programmer or a sought-after scientist.

As a rule, patients with social phobia seek help when the symptoms associated with the disease worsen: fear of flying, increased sweating during negotiations, and the like.

And this is logical: having achieved financial independence, you need to solve psychological problems in order to further improve your social status.

Case 5: prohibition on expressing emotions

A 26-year-old girl came to me. I give the floor to the patient, the monologue is much more eloquent than the standard description in the card.

“I graduated from the Literary Institute, so I am a certified writer. I have been involved in various types of creativity since childhood, I have many awards, including my works were included in the long list of the Debut Prize and the Astafyev Prize…

The most important goal is to learn to write quickly, easily and well, without hanging over each phrase, without endlessly going through options. I used to be able to do this and was ready to write at least around the clock, but now even when I think about going and writing something, it’s as if someone grabs me by the scruff of the neck, my back and neck tighten, and I try to find any excuse to do something else.”

From the rest of the story it turned out that there are plenty of orders (to translate a text, to write a review of new books, and the work is adequately paid), but in fact I have to refuse.

The reason is in emotion: it’s too embarrassing to criticize someone, to argue with someone, even on paper.

What did hypnotherapy give? They removed the interfering feeling of discomfort, which immediately allowed me to get down to business. As a result, a month later the client saved up money and rented a separate apartment (she still lived with her parents). In addition, she joined the much-desired creative crowd.

Case 6: It's embarrassing to do business

A young man came from the Northern capital. The patient has to communicate with customers by the nature of his work: if earlier it was possible to limit himself to telephone conversations, then with the expansion of the business, meetings must be held in person. Accordingly, childhood complexes appear.

• It is worth emphasizing that the strategy for treating social phobia resembles the principle of "divide and conquer": we identify key phobias and work through each one in order of intensity. For example, the client had a terrible fear of heights, which, by the way, became one of the obvious checks of the result a month after the hypnosis sessions.
• Treatment of phobias comes down to a conscious search for an associative connection of a particular symptom with a traumatic event of the past. Hypnotherapy techniques erase, "demagnetize" the conditioned reflex, which in many cases acts as a hypnotic suggestion.

A couple of months later, I received positive feedback: "I underwent hypnotherapy with Gennady. What I had: fear of "cold" calls + fear of heights. Previously, I tried to solve it with the help of emotionally figurative therapy (it gave some results) and Ericksonian hypnosis (zero results). But one "kind" psychologist (not Gennady) reduced all my independent results to nothing.

I came to Gennady. We had 4 hypnotherapy sessions of 3 hours each. The problem felt like it was gone by 10-15 percent - it was practically unnoticeable. I consider this result a miracle, because before I had eliminated the problem by 30 percent."

Case 7: a pronounced fear of condemnation

The girl came from another city. As I found out later, this was the patient's first independent trip in the last five years. This fact says a lot. The attitude to win, which was facilitated, in particular, by studying materials about hypnosis. No fears - no problems with hypnotizability.

The doctor must destroy all fears, false theories, expose the mental mechanisms that lead to these false ideas. It is necessary to arouse the idea of healing in the patient's mind." (psychotherapist I. Bernheim)

• The interview, like the session, was recorded after hypnotherapy (the client was afraid of the camera before the deep processing, but not after).
• General rule: if you remove the limitations of the mind, you can quickly retrain the subconscious.

Deep processing is carried out on two levels: restructuring of thinking and, at the same time, changing emotional reactions.

During the journey into the past, emotionally significant events are revealed. With the help of hypnosis, as with a magnifying glass, it is possible to find an incident where the patient picked up a chronic resentment, fear or anger - the feeling that gave rise to the interfering type of behavior. It is necessary to get to psychotrauma in order to force the personality to relive everything and return to life as a different person.

The "miracles" of healing are only apparent. There is nothing but work, so it is nice to receive flattering reviews as a reward: "Good evening, Gennady. I would like to say a few words about my condition after hypnotherapy. I feel good. I notice how easier and simpler it is to express myself with people, especially strangers. It has also become easier to accept different situations without feeling guilty that I did or said something wrong. In general, it has become much easier and simpler. As if I accepted myself internally, and this makes me feel very comfortable."

How to save money and nerves

Turn on common sense - perhaps the very recommendation for sociophobes who have not lost hope of getting rid of this affliction. Because patients often, having read articles by would-be psychologists, look for a soulmate "paid by the hour" (often from the same forums). You should not look for subtle connoisseurs of human suffering, but on the contrary, those who encourage you to relive the fatal episode, which, of course, is painful and requires strength. At the same time, in the end, you have enough self-control to get out of the situation with honor, and another person returns from the trance.

"I've had enough" or 3 good pieces of advice

1. It is advisable to visit a psychiatrist to exclude a diagnosis like ICD-10 F07.0, that is, sociopathy. Psychologists do not know how and do not have the right to take on psychopathy.
2. Trust in the method should not exclude trust in the specialist, so it is worth carefully choosing who to contact.
3. A significant criterion for the fact that social phobia is based on psychological trauma is the fact that the level of stress affects the symptoms: it intensifies, changes, adds new ones.

In previous articles When hypnosis does not help Gennady Ivanov examines in detail 4 more cases from his practice.