Many individuals have found themselves in situations riddled with panic and asking for anxiety help in some form or fashion. Group behaviors are often quite unsettling for individuals with acute anxiety disorders. These people often struggle to simply be present, and serene, around other people. What if there was a way to interact with other people in a way that anxiety could be discussed openly rather than hidden from? I believe that group therapy is just the prescription for people who are suffering from an anxiety disorder.
Not surprisingly there are almost as many causes for recommendation into group therapy as there are personality types who could benefit from it. Among the most common reasons that group therapy can be recommended for people suffering from anxiety is that:
- Group therapy brings the talents of a trained facilitator to the fore while addressing the anxiety brought up for the patients by being in a social setting.
- Group therapy brings various individual personalities into a dynamic relationship so that the patient can learn to interact with a wide array of individuals without inducing anxiety.
- Group therapy functions much like primary therapy in effectiveness however it is far less expensive as the cost is balanced throughout all the individuals participating in the group.
With these things in mind, I’d like to talk at length about why group therapy can be such a rewarding program of action for people who suffer from anxiety, especially a social anxiety disorder. Anxiety, quite simply draws its strength from never being talked about. Anxiety functions in the same fashion as eating disorders. The cycle of silence gives an anxiety disorder its potency. Unfortunately, for people who suffer from anxiety, the anxiety symptoms are often very over powering and cause a deep shame since they inhibit normal function so severely. In layman’s terms, an anxiety attack is an embarrassing ordeal and the sufferers of anxiety go through great lengths to conceal their anxiety from others in order to avoid that embarrassment. By using a group an anxiety patient can illuminate their disease, potentially disarming it.
I have seen individuals who are so socially inept that they do not attend any social functions and have no friends come to grips with their social anxiety by facing it in the presence of a group therapist. In what can be the most rewarding element of group therapy, these individuals get a chance to interact with others who they do not know at all. These people often produce great anxiety in the patient However, in time, they become accustomed to interacting with them and are able to do so with less severe anxiety symptoms.
However, while simply interacting socially in a safe environment can have many benefits for people who suffer from social anxiety, the true benefit of group therapy occurs when anxiety comes up for the patient during the session. Because anxiety is so often kept in the shadows, very infrequently do these people ever get the chance to talk about their anxiety while it is happening. However, with group therapy there is the opportunity, with a therapist, to discuss the anxiety symptoms in plain sight of everyone else and to do so in an emotionally safe fashion. Because of this, the anxiety symptoms, through a process that can be difficult to describe, actually diminish greatly. Talking about anxiety has the effect of limiting the power of the anxiety. But, since the stigma associated with anxiety is so potent, individuals rarely get a chance to discuss openly because they simply do not feel comfortable to do so. As a result the anxiety, thriving in the shadows only grows stronger. Therefore, it is the frank discussion of the anxiety in value neutral setting that causes the patient to see a decrease in anxiety symptoms in their outside life.
