Social anxiety institute why aren’t more people talking about this.

[nickygstar]

Hi,
So I’ve suffered from social anxiety for a long time. And I’ve tried it all drugs therapy with a therapist and countless supplements, all of them made me worse(apart from magnesium and multi vitamin which help a bit). I had almost given up and then I stubbled across the social anxiety institute. I started their program thinking it would be garbage. But for the first time within a few weeks I had my first improvement, I felt calmer and could control my anxiety a bit. This improvement came week on week and I reduced my anxiety by about 50% by the end of the series. I am now part of a weekly Skype call with people from all over the world who are also doing this program and am currently going back through the program more slowly than it says. It basically teaches you how to get over social anxiety by taking little steps and using cognitive and behavioural strategies when doing exposure. It takes longer than I would like but I now have the hope and my depression has fizzled out.
Why aren’t more people talking about this, it really works and could help so many people. I’ve noticed that so many people don’t actually want to get better. All I’ve ever wanted was to get better and now I have the tools to do it. I wish I had found it 15 years ago, but it looks like so few people stick with it or know about it.

hope this helps

 

[OmniscientNihilist]

I’ve noticed that so many people don’t actually want to get better.

people get pleasure from their identity. even if its a negative identity. so it can be very confusing to overcome it. because its giving you pleasure and pain. so half the time we want to get rid of it and the other half we want to increase it.

take a goth identity for example. goth has produced alot of great art and music etc.. but goth as a core identity can be very harmful. because we need to embrace goodness and love to maximize survival. and any identity that contradicts that will lead us down the wrong path. and it will give a large reward for increasing it. so it gets very confusing for the mind on what to do.

a negative identity will give short term rewards but in the long term lead to more hardship. this is one reason religion can help people. it gives them motivation to create a higher more positive and spiritual identity which allows them to overcome their lower darker wordily identity that may be causing their anxiety.

 

[OCDguy]

Hi,
So I’ve suffered from social anxiety for a long time. And I’ve tried it all drugs therapy with a therapist and countless supplements, all of them made me worse(apart from magnesium and multi vitamin which help a bit). I had almost given up and then I stubbled across the social anxiety institute. I started their program thinking it would be garbage. But for the first time within a few weeks I had my first improvement, I felt calmer and could control my anxiety a bit. This improvement came week on week and I reduced my anxiety by about 50% by the end of the series. I am now part of a weekly Skype call with people from all over the world who are also doing this program and am currently going back through the program more slowly than it says. It basically teaches you how to get over social anxiety by taking little steps and using cognitive and behavioural strategies when doing exposure. It takes longer than I would like but I now have the hope and my depression has fizzled out.
Why aren’t more people talking about this, it really works and could help so many people. I’ve noticed that so many people don’t actually want to get better. All I’ve ever wanted was to get better and now I have the tools to do it. I wish I had found it 15 years ago, but it looks like so few people stick with it or know about it.

hope this helps

Great post, thank you for sharing. Anything that helps really needs shouting about.

 

[irwin]

I knew a guy who went to that. It's at Dr. Richards house, or it was before the pandemic. It may be all online now. He didn't get over his social anxiety, though, but some people may. What works for some people might not work for others.

The problem with SAD is that for most people with severe social anxiety, the root cause is low self-esteem, and unless you address the underlying issue, you're only addressing the symptoms, which can help, but it's not going to cure the problem. You have to find out why this person feels unworthy. Part of it can be that he or she doesn't have good social skills, and that can be taught...

I have to go eat dinner.

 

[jajingna]

It seems to be a massive problem going untreated for millions of sufferers. I dunno, so many people just aren't at ease with themselves around others and this causes so many problems like lack of friends, relationships, jobs. Seems to me a whole large industry could be devoted to this if enough people knew how to help treat it effectively for most sufferers.

 

[OCDguy]

I think a lot could be achieved with fellow sufferers forming a community with a structured programme for delivering self-esteem etc.

 

[karl7]

im glad things are going well foryou nicky....have you got a link for their website

 

[jajingna]

I looked this up yesterday

Social Anxiety Institute

socialanxietyinstitute.org

 

[siliconom]

The Social Anxiety Institute has been around at least 20 years and failed to make much impact. It sounds like a charity but is actually a blatantly commercial venture offering standard CBT packages at an inflated price. You have to pay upfront for the whole course, this might be an advantage for some who might otherwise give up but it's expensive if you want to quit after one session. It's for those with plenty of UK squid.

A cheaper option is to find a local CBT therapist where you can pay each session.

CBT is pretty much based on one very good book, Feeling Good by Dr. Michael Burns. Its 500 pages long! Worth working through but you have nobody apart from yourself to push you to do the homework e.g. say hello to 5 strangers you pass on the street.

If you're short of squid, you could try downloading free. Type book followed by a period (full stop) followed by org
Then return to the word book and replace the first letter 'o' with an undetstroke _

Hope this helps

 

[irwin]

For most people with SAD, the root cause is low self-esteem. The Six Pillars of Self-esteem by Nathaniel Branden is a pretty good resource. You can find most of what's in the book online, or get the book.

 

[jajingna]

If you're short of squid, you could try downloading free. Type book followed by a period (full stop) followed by org
Then return to the word book and replace the first letter 'o' with an undetstroke _

You can put links like that here

I read a few from here: PDF Drive - Search and download PDF files for free.

 

[irwin]

You can put links like that here

I read a few from here: PDF Drive - Search and download PDF files for free.

The Six Pillars of Self-esteem is available on that site. I didn't try downloading it, though.

 

[siliconom]

Mr. Richards is a successful business man. No doubt a competent therapist too.

A good comparison would be with the marvelous Claire Weekes. She was an unassuming family doctor who devoted all her free time to helping those with anxiety. She would be horrified today to see people profiting from others' misery.

Richards does offer a vast glo bal network of clients to practice role play with. However, many folk with social anxiety are ok one on one. It's in groups with 'normal' people that they struggle

 

[nickygstar]

I disagree that he has swindled people out their money. Sure it’s a business, but it really works and it will work for everyone once they get to the right place. It was the first thing to work for me and I believe that rigourous practice over years can undo the negative beliefs we been having. They cbt has really good content and it created for people specifically with social anxiety disorder. Most therapists don’t have a clue how to treat social anxiety disorder.

 

[nickygstar]

The in person therapy might not be that great if your coming from overseas or far away it only last three weeks which isn’t enough time for the therapy to really work properly so I guess that’s a bit of a money making venture. But there is a program over the course of 13 weeks for locals and they can sign back up once they have finished to continue and I belief that would be worthwhile for the people that can do it. Otherwise the online content is very good but you have to follow it the letter, I tried learning some strategies and throwing them out there and it didn’t work, took my three attempts before I made progress, but when I did I made it fast and got over maybe 40% of severe anxiety with avoidance in three months. Which is real progress. The most important thing is that you make the strategies and rational a habit so you rely on it and it because a new way of being. I just hope I can overcome my big fears.