Relieve Social Anxiety with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindfulness is shown in research to use neural pathways in the brain that cause the nervous system to calm. Using mindfulness, we can begin to notice what happens in the body when anxiety is present and develop strategies to empower clients to “signal safety” to their nervous system. Over time, clients feel empowered to slow down their response to triggers, manage their body’s fear response (fight-or-flight) and increase their ability to tolerate discomfort.“ – Jeena Cho

 

It is almost a common human phenomenon that being in a social situation can be stressful and anxiety producing. This is particularly true when asked to perform in a social context such as giving a speech. Most people can deal with the anxiety and can become quite comfortable. But many do not cope well with the anxiety or the level of anxiety is overwhelming, causing the individual to withdraw. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is characterized by a persistent, intense, and chronic fear of being watched and judged by others and feeling embarrassed or humiliated by their actions. This fear may be so severe that it interferes with work, school, and other activities and may negatively affect the person’s ability to form relationships. SAD is the most common form of anxiety disorder occurring in about 7% of the U.S. population.

 

Anxiety disorders have generally been treated with drugs. It has been estimated that 11% of women in the U.S. are taking anti-anxiety medications. But, there are considerable side effects and these drugs are often abused. Although, psychological therapy can be effective it is costly and only available to a small numbers of sufferers. So, there is a need to develop alternative treatments. Recently, it has been found that mindfulness training can be effective for anxiety disorders including Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). There is a need, however, to investigate the effectiveness of different therapeutic techniques for anxiety disorders.

 

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was developed to treat depression but has been found to also be effective for other mood disorders. MBCT involves mindfulness training, containing sitting and walking meditation and body scan, and cognitive therapy to alter how the patient relates to the thought processes that often underlie and exacerbate mood disorders. In today’s Research News article “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Iranian Female Adolescents Suffering From Social Anxiety.” See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5292141/

Ebrahiminejad and colleagues examine the ability of (MBCT) to relieve Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD).

 

They recruited High School students with SAD and randomly assigned them to receive either and 8-week, 1.5 hours once a week, MBCT program or a no-treatment control condition. The students were measured before and after treatment for Social Anxiety and self-esteem. MBCT sessions were held in a group format with 15 students per group. They found that following the MBCT program the students had a significant, 21%, improvement in Social Anxiety and a significant three-fold improvement in self-esteem, while the control groups showed no improvement in either measure. Hence, the results of this pilot study suggest that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is effective in treating Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) in adolescents.

 

Anxiety is a fear of what might happen in the future. Mindfulness training by focusing the individual on the present moment, would tend to counteract anxiety. In addition, the cognitive therapy component of the MBCT program is targeted on changing the thought processes that lead to the anticipation of pending negative consequences. Hence, MBCT both alters the aberrant thinking and the focus on the future, resulting in marked improvement in anxiety disorders.

 

These are potentially important results as SAD is such a common disorder that interferes with the social development of adolescents. It should be pointed out that the control condition received no treatment whatsoever. So, the conclusions must be tempered with the understanding that a number of confounding factors, such as placebo effects, experimenter bias, attentional effects, etc., could be responsible for the outcomes. But, this pilot study demonstrates significant effects and suggests that a randomized controlled clinical trial be conducted that includes an active control condition.

 

“mindfulness meditation training made people with social anxiety disorder feel less anxious and less depressed and improved their self-views.” – Mindful

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Ebrahiminejad, S., Poursharifi, H., Bakhshiour Roodsari, A., Zeinodini, Z., & Noorbakhsh, S. (2016). The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Iranian Female Adolescents Suffering From Social Anxiety. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 18(11), e25116. http://doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.25116

 

Abstract

Background

Social anxiety is one of the most common psychological disorders that exists among children and adolescents, and it has profound effects on their psychological states and academic achievements.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on diminishing social anxiety disorder symptoms and improving the self-esteem of female adolescents suffering from social anxiety.

Patients and Methods

Semi-experimental research was conducted on 30 female students diagnosed with social anxiety. From the population of female students who were studying in Tehran’s high schools in the academic year of 2013 – 2014, 30 students fulfilling the DSM-5 criteria were selected using the convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group received eight sessions of MBCT treatment. The control group received no treatment. All participants completed the social phobia inventory (SPIN) and Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSES) twice as pre- and post-treatment tests.

Results

The results from the experimental group indicated a statistically reliable difference between the mean scores from SPIN (t (11) = 5.246, P = 0.000) and RSES (t (11) = -2.326, P = 0.040) pre-treatment and post-treatment. On the other hand, the results of the control group failed to reveal a statistically reliable difference between the mean scores from SPIN (t (12) = 1.089, P = 0.297) and RSES pre-treatment and post-treatment (t (12) = 1.089, P = 0.000).

Conclusions

The results indicate that MBCT is effective on both the improvement of self-esteem and the decrease of social anxiety. The results are in accordance with prior studies performed on adolescents.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5292141/