i have social anxiety, is it too late to seek treatment ?

I’m relatively shy, reserved , but at a certain extent, meaning i don’t blush when i speak. My problem is i suffer from social anxiety,i prefer being all alone or at home with my family, i don’t like to speak to other people, especially when i’m not obliged to.
what can i do to get over my anxiety ?
i’m 26 btw.

As was said, it is NEVER too late. Behavior is always changing, whether you are working on it actively or not. For the positive or negative. Generally if you are working on it , the behavior is going to a positive area, and if not it all depends on your environment, etc.

You are incredibly young.. as such you aren’t *stuck* in your ways and wouldn’t be a particularly difficult or unlikely person to help *if* you want it. Which I assume you do.

Generally people about 45 and under give the best results in anxiety related treatment, as the brain continues to be less plastic as we age, but it remains plastic (or able to change functionally and structurally) till the day we die. So no matter you age, 10 or 90, the methods work.

I wouldn’t utilize medication ,.. I would go with some cognitive behavioral therapy and give it a fair shot at helping your anxiety. It is really effective for this. Also referred to as CBT. You can likely find a psychologist who specializes in CBT and will also do the general ‘talk therapy’ in and around the active CBT to let you vent some feelings and guide you.

With CBT you are basically being taught how to handle situations, how to react, and you get to practice them. Whatever makes you uncomfortable (in some people everything does, just sitting in their own house with a family member.. so there is no ‘TOO’ hard or much.) — whatever makes you uncomfortable will be addressed and the therapist will guide you in how to deal with it. (It is quite a bit more complex than this, but for the sake of time this is adequate).

Think of it as ‘brain washing’ but in a good way. While technically not the same thing, you are consenting and it takes your active participation to change your mind.. it is similar in technique.

An example would be to expose you slowly, to the stimulus that makes you uncomfortable.. with the therapist (that you’ve become comfortable with). Sometimes you just REMAIN in this stimulus and realize hey, this won’t kill me, let’s think rationally here. What about this scenario makes me nervous, anxious, and uncomfortable? What thoughts actually make SENSE? What is likely to actually happen? And so on.

Generally we feel anxious and think it is for ‘no’ reason.. and if we dig a little deeper (with aid of course) we can discover some underlying factors we are thinking and have conditioned ourselves to think over our lifetime. You can also know exactly what makes you feel uncomfortable about the situation, and sometimes you can be wrong at what you THINK makes you feel anxious and what it truly is. This is only discovery, the end result remains in realizing and changing these thought patterns over time.

The reason I mentioned “brain washing” is because you are literally retraining and somewhat ‘tricking’ the mind/brain into new patterns that with enough repetition will be automatic. Real changes are occurring in the brain/mind .. mostly desensitization and coping tools. That after a while the situation is elementary to you and completely comfortable. Usually you end up completely at ease with things you never imagined you would be.. which is of course the goal.

So give it a fair shot, enough time, and I think you will be surprised at the results that come eventually.

Medication is fine for cases that either aren’t interested in working through the issues , are a bit severe and need it to calm them before and during the therapy, and so on. However, medication doesn’t ‘fix’ anything, not yet – at least.. so if you can successfully work some CBT you are literally ‘fixing’ situations and thought patterns , theoretically, permanently.

Good luck,