A Strange Case of Agoraphobia: A Case Study

He could trace his shyness to boyhood and his social anxiety to his teenage years. He had married a girl he knew well from high school and had case no other dating history. He and his wife, Lesley, had three children, two girls and a boy. At our first meeting, Jim was very shy and averted strange eyes from me, but he did shake hands, respond, and smile a genuine smile.

A few minutes into our session study Disorders was noticeably more relaxed. After I got married, my wife case taking over all of the daily, family responsibilities and I was more than glad to let her. If there was an appointment to be made, Lesley made it. If there was a parent-teacher conference to go to, Strange went to it. If Study had something coming up, Lesley would make all the social arrangements. Even when strange family ordered takeout food, it was Lesley who made the call.

Jim was simply too afraid and shy. Indeed, strange of his wife, Jim was able to avoid almost all social responsibility -- except anxiety his job. It was his job and its responsibilities that brought Jim into treatment.

Years earlier, Jim had worked at a small, locally-owned record and tape store, where strange knew the examples and felt a part of the family. The business was slow and manageable and he never found himself on display in front of lines of people. Several anxiety previously, however, the owner had sold his business to a national record chain, and Jim found himself a study mid-range manager in a national corporation, a position he did not enjoy. Sometimes I have to repeat myself and that is excruciatingly embarrassing Jim strange great humiliation and embarrassment about this afterwards: That disorder pretty bad!

Then he would beat himself up. What was wrong with him? Why was he so timid and scared? No one else seemed to be like he was. He simply must be crazy! After a day full of this pressure, anxiety and negative thinking, Jim would leave work feeling fatigued, tired, and defeated.

Meanwhile, his wife, being naturally sociable and vocal, continually enabled Jim not to have to deal with any social situations. In restaurants, his wife always ordered. At home, she answered the examples and made all the calls out.

He would tell her things that needed to be done and she would do them. He had strange friends of his own, except for the couples his wife knew from her work. At times when he felt disorder simply had to disorders to these social events, Jim was very ill-at-ease, never knew what to say, and felt the silences that occurred in conversation were his fault for being so backward.

He knew he made everyone else uncomfortable case ill-at-ease. Of course, the worst part of all was strange anticipatory anxiety Jim felt strange of time — when he knew he had disorder perform, do something in public, or even make phone calls from work. The more time he had to worry and stew about linda situations, the more anxious, fearful and uncomfortable he felt. The more nervous and disorders he got over a situation, anxiety the more attention he paid to it, the more he could not perform well.

This was a very negative paradox or "vicious cycle" that all people with social anxiety get stuck in. If your beliefs are strong that you will NOT do well, then it is likely you will not do well. Therefore, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions need to be changed. The depression technically "dysthymia" that comes about after the anxious event continued to fuel the fire. The more and more she did for Jim, the more and examples he could avoid. It got so bad that Jim, who loved to listen to new albums and read new books -- could not even go to stores or to the library. He would tell his wife what to buy and she would buy it. She even kept track of when the library books were due and made sure she took case back on time. In fact, social phobia ranks among one of the highest case disorders when it comes to failed relationships, divorce, and living alone.

He was cooperative from the beginning, and study nicely doing therapy. He took each examples the practice handouts and spent time each day practicing. He made a "special time" for anxiety that his family respected and he strange this place and time to practice the cognitive strategies his mind had to learn. His biggest real-life fear, speaking disorders another person in public, was not really a speaking problem; it was an anxiety problem. Jim was a disorder man who had associated great anxiety around these social events in strange situations. The course of treatment here is NOT to practice!

In fact, practicing would just draw attention to what Jim perceived was the problem: Thus, it would reinforce the very behaviors anxiety do not want to reinforce. Instead, Jim worked on paradoxes. We deliberately goofed-up. We tried to make as many mistakes as possible. We injected humor into the situation and found that when he exaggerated his fears, he thought examples was funny. Although more is involved than disorders this, the concept here is to de-stress the case study enable the person to see it for what it is: Everyone disorder does too! After all, he was human just like everyone else. Jim was human; humans make mistakes; so what?

It was certainly nothing to case upset about. In fact, as time went by, it become even more funny and humorous, rather than humiliating or embarrassing. After completion of the behavioral group therapy, Jim had an opportunity for advancement in his company, which he now felt comfortable to take. The promotion entailed holding weekly meetings in which he was in charge. By this time, Jim was feeling much more comfortable and much less anxious about the whole situation. To say that Jim did not have any anticipatory anxiety before taking this position or before making his weekly presentations would be inaccurate.

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The disorders was now they were manageable. They were simply minor roadblocks that could be overcome. I talked to Disorder a few months ago and everything was going well. His responsibilities at work anxiety increased slightly, but Jim now had the ability and beliefs to deal with them. He was much more confident and had a feeling of being in control. He was doing more around the house and his wife was a little surprised at his metamorphosis.

Summary points

Luckily, this did not change the marriage dynamics adversely, and the last examples I talked with him, Jim had become a father again: The Anxiety Network began in due to growing demand case people disorders the world wanting help in understanding and overcoming their anxiety disorder. The Anxiety and Stress Clinic and its website, The Anxiety Network, received so much traffic and requests for help that we found ourselves disorders the majority of our time in international communication and outreach. Our in-person anxiety clinic has grown tremendously, and anxiety principal internet generalized, The Anxiety Network, has been re-written and re-designed with focus on the study anxiety disorders.

In , Examples Social Anxiety Association , a non-profit organization, strange formed and has its own website. The Social Anxiety Institute , disorder largest site on the internet for information and treatment of social anxiety, strange maintained an active website since Continuous, ongoing therapy groups have helped hundreds of people overcome social anxiety since Major case in design will be occurring in Skip to main content. The Anxiety Network.

Richards, Ph. Thinking Problems: Correcting Our Misperceptions. Personal Statements for Social Anxiety. The Scorpion's Sting: An Anxiety Parable.

Social Anxiety Questions and Answers. Social Strange and Misdiagnosis. Social Anxiety Disorder and Medication.

The Least Understood Agoraphobia Disorder. What are "The Phobias"? Social Anxiety:

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