Many individuals have found themselves in situations riddled with panic and asking for anxiety help in some form or fashion. For people that suffer from anxiety, social interactions can be a terribly panic inducing experience. For such individuals, anxiety, in order to be conquered must be spoken of and put out into the light. I believe that group therapy is just the prescription for people who are suffering from an anxiety disorder.
Group therapy is recommended quite often for a variety of reasons. Among the most common reasons that group therapy can be recommended for people suffering from anxiety is that:
- Group therapy interactions can be examined in detail breaking down the specific feelings that you experienced while participating in the intervention.
- 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.
Considering these facts, let us take a moment to examine why group therapy should be a treatment methodology of choice for patients of anxiety disorders. Anxiety, quite simply draws its strength from never being talked about. Like many other pathologies, including compulsive gambling, anxiety gets worse when it is kept as a secret. 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. Basically, no one wants to talk about their anxiety issues openly. 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. They are forced, and this can be extremely uncomfortable, to sit in a crowded room and interact with people who they may not know well. Such interactions can at first bring up a lot of emotions. 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.
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