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Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy
    #19652426 -




You sit in class and wonder if the teacher will call on you. Should you look up from your lunch tray or take a bite to eat? What if someone is looking at you? What if you mess up? What if you freak out?


Quote:
Social Phobia: An intense irrational fear of social situation. Fear of the public forum.



Some people are shy and some people suffer from intense irrational fears of social situations. If you feel that you are the latter then read on.




Here is how it was explained to me by my professor.

And my interpretation:

Anxiety, and social anxiety all happen because of a neurotransmitter (NTS) imbalance. That is, there is not enough inhibitory GABA to regulate Dopamine. Thus, anxiety is too much dopamine (NTS) activity and the problem is that our inhibitory GABA (NTS) is out of wack.

Anxiety = too much dopamine = hyperactivity

'when you get scared dopamine goes up and GABA brings it back down'

'a person with anxiety does not have too much dopamine, but rather not enough GABA to bring them down'

Dopamine is the "do it" transmitter that keeps your brain functioning but simply lowering the dopamine level is not the current treatment. Instead of decreasing dopamine by using an antagonist we increase GABA by using an agonist drug. Thus we help the confused GABA system inhibit the Dopamine by using drugs such as valium.

'the GABA producing mechanism is OK but it is not regulating correctly which causes the problem'



For example:

We used hypothetical NTS numbers to visualize social anxiety treatment.

UNTREATED

Dopamine              GABA               
    100                    90         

         

TREATED

Dopamine              GABA            Valium
    100                    90        +      10

'valium is used to compensate for the erroneous GABA producing mechanism'

'now GABA, because of the valium, is equal to 100 and the problem is fixed!

Unfortunately our bodies produce a tolerance. That is, they crave homeostasis, a sense of equilibrium, and the body begins to resist the change. And so the doctor gives us a higher dose of Valium.


Dopamine              GABA              Valium
    100                    80        +        20

    100                    70        +        30

    100                    60        +        40


And eventually the drug tolerance grows too high and the doctor may feel that withdrawing from the medication is warranted. Or perhaps you were taking Valium illegally. Withdraw, in terms of our numerical metaphor, looks like this:

Dopamine              GABA              Valium
    100                    60                  0

'withdraw in this case would be extreme anxiety'


The only way to stop the withdraw is through negative reinforcement - taking away the extreme anxiety with valium and reinforcing the probability that that behavior will happen again -- which it SHOULD so that severe withdraw symptoms can be avoided.

Thus we reverse the cycle and in the end we are back to where we started:

Dopamine              GABA                Valium
    100                    90                  0


The question is: What good did that do? I have heard people talk about benzodiazepines and barbiturates as a "crutch". And I think it may be true.

But what if it is paired with 'flooding' or 'systematic desensitization'?

Quote:
FLOODING

So the doc tells me that there was once a technique used called flooding. HYPOTHETICALLY, if you were afraid of rats one might put you in a room of rats with no way out, flooding your senses, forcing you to confront your phobia. The problem is that this is unethical, although tells us he has seen it work.

Eventually he said you would panic, scream, yell, bang on the door, and possibly try to kill the rats. But of course scientists would keep dropping in rats. You would keep trying to kill the rats and eventually get tired. Eventually you would sit in a corner and then push them away from you. And then you would get so tired you fell asleep. Repeat until the phobia is gone.


Unfortunately flooding is pretty unethical, but it serves as an idea which I will expound upon in a moment.

Systematic desensitization is an ethical and effective treatment to reduce anxiety.

Quote:
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION

This is when you might list 10 possible things to a psychologist. 1 is the most terrifying situation as pertaining to your phobia and 10 is the least terrifying. For instance if you hated rats your number one fear may be holding a rat and your number 10 fear may be seeing a rat on TV. The idea is to start at 10 and become comfortable with looking at rats on TV by relaxation techniques and possibly a drug, if prescribed.


I said flooding was important for a reason. Even though in systematic desensitization we do not flood ourselves with mass amounts of stimuli we still do in fact subject ourselves to uncomfortable stimuli. Thus the key, according to my doc, is to accept that you must experience a bit of anxiety in order to conquer your phobia.

So we have a "crutch" drug and two methods of therapy.

It is often said, and I have often heard from doctors, that social phobias are best treated with medication and systematic desensitization. I believe that the medication has the potential to help you relax to the terrifying stimuli (e.g., rats or people)when undergoing systematic desensitization. It seems to me that a strict schedule of systematic desensitization and medication must be followed. Doses of the medication must be somehow paired to the treatment in such a way that one is left with improvement.

This is my take so far on social anxiety. I haven't concluded anything really, but I discovered a lot. And it seems that the answers are so close.


There is hope.



--------------------
TRUMP 2020

Edited by XUL (03/04/14 11:59 PM)

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: XUL]
    #19652627 -

tolerance level. the more you go do it. the more you tolerate it till theres nothing tolerate n your just there.

meditation beforehand helps the tolerance level. thats how i view anxiety regarding situations.

so its similiar. the same to really what you wrote.


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Im only aloud to post once an hour. Because 'Sell Your Soul' doesn't like me. so if I am responding to you, that means you are above of the utmost importance

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: Endure]
    #19654737 -

Quote:
meditation beforehand helps the tolerance level.


How do you mean?


--------------------
TRUMP 2020

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: XUL]
    #19655633 -

XUL said:
Quote:
meditation beforehand helps the tolerance level.


How do you mean?


if you were to calm yourself and put your mind in a better place through meditation, before venturing forth into the land of anxiety wherever that is, you will have a significantly amount of less anxiety. im talking about guided imagery meditation on audio, through headset.

ive done it before n it works alot. meditation imo fucks with your chemicals. i notice a huge difference before and after and the more you do it the better


--------------------
Im only aloud to post once an hour. Because 'Sell Your Soul' doesn't like me. so if I am responding to you, that means you are above of the utmost importance

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: XUL]
    #19656523 -

/

Edited by Johnny Depp (12/20/14 03:10 AM)

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: Johnny Depp]
    #19657020 -

So if you were the only person in the world there would be no social anxiety?

I am trying to think of any other disease whose existence depends on other people existing.

Do you guys actually think about some of the "facts" you have?

This concept also implies that our genetics are somewhat aware of society.

Makes no sense. I am baffled that people actually pass this crap along as science or fact.

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #19657090 -

Quote:
TLDR; you are on the right track with your post, but it's MUCH more complicated than that.


That's what he said. He told us that if this kind of material interested us that we should take his pharmacology course. It sounds exciting.


--------------------
TRUMP 2020

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #19657172 -

/

Edited by Anonymous (12/20/14 03:11 AM)

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: Anonymous #1]
    #19657234 -

I meant if no one else was around you, for whatever reason, say they all died or just vanished, could social anxiety still exist

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #19657329 -

/

Edited by Anonymous (12/20/14 03:11 AM)

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: Anonymous #1]
    #19657453 -

/

Edited by Anonymous (12/20/14 03:11 AM)

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: Anonymous #1]
    #19658214 -

Quote:
Let's make a commitment to learn more about social anxiety.  Is it something you've been diagnosed with?  I have.


Yes, let's.

If I find out any more information or understanding I am going to post it in this thread.

Thanks for the post. This thread could be a place for some "reliable" information.

I study psychology. You too?


--------------------
TRUMP 2020

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: Anonymous #1]
    #19658675 -

I wonder if there's any practice for phobia of future, of destiny. Because it seems like I'm having one. I'm really afraid of becoming a homeless or being stuck in life situations, like being at dead-end job.

But I wouldn't mind being a homeless  where it's +20 in wintertime :lol:

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: HeartAndMind]
    #19658680 -

But on the other hand, I know that life will never be how my mind thinks about it, otherwise I would be making millions :tongue:

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: HeartAndMind] * 1
    #19664188 -

I'm not familiar with all the brain chems at play here, but IMO it's just insufficient positive feedback coming from social interactions. Furthermore I suspect it has to do with skin contact and other nonverbal signs of genuine interest, as opposed to talking. Not getting that, or getting a lot of criticism (from parents, teachers, bullies etc.) is IMO what starts the negative spiral and endless loops.

Look at other primates, you'll see them play, pull, push, interact pretty much constantly. This gives them ample chance to learn where they fit in the social order and to get ample confirmation that yes, they're worthy of interest, attention, respect, whatever. Over on the human side, especially in school, we have a forced cessation of all this, for several hours a day, starting a pattern of non-interaction, or non-physical interaction. Kids / people end up alienated, running alone through endless critical thought loops, chewing endlessly some remark, suspicion or fear, without others helping them get out of it, resuming the good vibes.

Next time you see a person that's incredibly shy, introverted, afraid of social contact, do a little experiment. Hug them, bang their brains out, offer a massage or at least a genuine pat on the back, any form of physical reinforcement, and see how they respond. They might not know how to react at first (as it's probably been a while since they got one of those) but repeat a few times, consistently, and you'll find that yes, they can very well produce all teh GABA, dopamine and everything required for them to feel good, they just haven't received the necessary triggers to do so, in a long long time.

:hug: :cuddles:


--------------------
Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.



For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. - Matthew 13:16

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: Spacerific]
    #19665494 -

:thumbup: :thumbup:

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: HeartAndMind]
    #19665562 -

Very interesting post. I have anxiety and have found smoking marijuana greatly increases this anxiety. Marijuana releases dopamine so if I already have uncontrolled dopamine than it makes sense that even more dopamine would give me more anxiety.

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: ganjasmuggler]
    #19667305 -

ganjasmuggler said:
Very interesting post. I have anxiety and have found smoking marijuana greatly increases this anxiety. Marijuana releases dopamine so if I already have uncontrolled dopamine than it makes sense that even more dopamine would give me more anxiety.


:facepalm:

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Re: Social Phobia and Medication and Therapy [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #19667311 -

so have you ever made any choices? is anything your fault if you are nothing more than the combination of chemicals?

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