Social anxiety disorder is a disorder that is based on excessive self-consciousness. This can manifest itself in a feeling of fear or dread of public situations like a doing a business presentation are speaking up in a meeting. The symptoms of social anxiety disorder, or social phobia, are very broad and can affect people in a variety of ways.

Some may be fine in public places like shopping, the supermarket or a mall but be very self-conscious if they need to interact with anyone. Social phobia is identified as having a persistent or chronic fear of doing or saying something that might be judged harshly and could result in embarrassment or humiliation. In more severe cases, this fear can keep someone from the human to human interaction necessary to advance one's career, or even be successful in many school are educational situations.

It's no secret that one of the best ways of moving up the corporate ladder is to make yourself visible to those in management above you. The most common way to gain this visibility is by volunteering for higher profile projects and assignments. This offers the opportunity to deliver regular reports to upper management and demonstrate not only project management skills but team leadership as well.

To the person suffering with social phobia however, the option to volunteer for a high profile project or assignment is simply not possible. While they may be mentally up to the challenge and possibly even the best person for the job, a social phobic can limit themselves by the need to remain out of the spotlight. This in turn, severely limits their visibility to management and can also limit career advancement potential.

Social Phobia Treatments

The good news is that there are many treatment options available to help control social phobias. The most successful treatment has been a combination of psychotherapy and medications. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective in treating many social anxiety disorders. This therapy focuses on control of a person's own thoughts and how they react or behave in relation to that thought process. This allows someone suffering with social phobia to move past the fear and anxiety and be able to continue on with their lives. This does not mean that they are cured, only that the social phobia monster has been faced and controlled for a given situation.

Cognitive behavior therapy or CBT works to gradually deal with situations that are increasingly more fearful or complex. This offers the sufferer a way to develop the confidence to face situations and deal with the anxiety.