Have you ever felt like people were watching you? Have you ever felt self conscious and nervous simply walking down the street? What if you ran into someone you knew and had to talk to them? What if people are laughing at you?

These are just some of thoughts that might be coursing through the mind of a person struggling with social phobia, generalized anxiety or a number of other anxiety conditions.

The worst thing that an anxiety sufferer fears beyond all of these worries is that other people will see or know they are afraid. Struggling with the fear of embarrassment and the worry of discovery are daily occupations for phobia, panic attack and anxiety sufferers.

These fears often remain hidden because people are unable or unwilling to talk about them and fear the reaction of others when told about these fear based problems.

Many anxiety sufferers may find their sleep disturbed worrying about an upcoming meeting. Even after the meeting is over and relief has set in, the memory of the meeting and the anticipation of the next one are at the forefront of your thoughts, leaving you worried, nervous and once again without sleep.

Anxiety sufferers and particularly social phobia sufferers will find themselves analyzing every little thing they did in the meeting and harping over it for days, even weeks to come. It´s this over scrutiny that heightens the negative anticipation for the next group gathering.

As most people have experienced at one time or another, when you obsess over the minutiae of every little thing, it magnifies the event in your mind and makes it seem vastly more important than it is.

Anxiety or social phobia can strike people young or old, at work, school or at home. Next time you´re in school, take a look around at the class the first day, how many empty seats are there? At least a few people skipped class that first day to avoid having to introduce themselves and be embarrassed.

They may have been nervous or afraid of looking weak and nervous to their classmates. They didn´t want to tremble, whisper, shake or have their voice quiver. All of these events probably made the anxiety sufferer physically ill.

Some of these situations may sound familiar and may indicate that you have social phobia or another anxiety based condition. This is hardly the end of the world! In fact, you now know what the problem is and you also know it can be resolved.

The best way to kick this problem is through cognitive behavior therapy which works through a process of gradual exposure to that which you fear. It´s important to have a support person with you when you take on these exposure exercises.

The good thing about this approach is that it helps most people resolve their problems without medication. While medications are certainly helpful and maybe even necessary in certain severe cases, many people want to avoid them and their side effects. This is understandable and where non-prescription solutions like cognitive behavior therapy comes into play.

However, like any treatment, it does take time and consistent effort on your part. Make the commitment to make a better life for yourself.